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If Iran gets nukes, there will be pressure on rival countries in the region to develop nuclear weapons. Nuclear proliferation is always bad news. This is nothing to cheer on, no matter who you side with.
This is a direct result of US pulling out of JCPOA and failing to be an honest actor dealing with Iran. As always, burger empire is at the root of the problems.
Yes, that was an incredibly foolish and dishonest action by Trump.
Biden had every opportunity to reverse it.
Not really, there is no basis to revive the JCPOA. Iran doesn't show any interest in holding up its part of the agreement, even if a president reentered the JCPOA. The problem is that the next president could just come along and pull another Trump. And the sanctions regime that brought Iran to the table in the first place was very difficult to forge, so that won't be duplicated ever again.
I don't disagree that Us political system being highly volatile makes it practically impossible for countries to make any long term agreements with US. The only rational thing to do is to deter the Us militarily.
Nobody has any reason to trust the United States no matter who is in charge, correct.
Opening the floodgates will be good news for the region though. If Iraq or Libya had nukes they wouldn't have been bombed and invaded. I don't want to see Iran bombed or invaded. I am from Saudi Arabia, it is in my best interest for Iran to be strong and stable, rival or not, Iran having nukes does that. Of course I also think that Saudi Arabia should have nukes too.
Every country that has nukes means more risk that some loose cannon sets off a nuke. That is why nuclear non-proliferation agreements are so important.
To demonstrate, what if Saddam and Iran had had nukes during the Iran-Iraq War? Saddam used chemical weapons against the Kurds. Would he use nukes? I genuinely don't know, the man was apparently a psychopath. Would you actually want someone like that to have nukes?
Nukes are an inevitability following sanctions. North Korea was sanctioned to hell and back by major international players before they developed nukes... At that point, they really might as well go all the way. The same is true for Iran, and the same will be true for any upcoming player with nukes.
The weaponization of sanctions for political gain rather than to act as a counterbalance against actual world-ending threats will be the death of us.
The only country that ever used them is the US. The only countries that its elected politicians regularly threaten to use them are the US and Israel.
Putin, as part of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, said that if any countries tried to stop Russia, they would face "such consequences that you have never encountered in your history". It's hard to take that two ways.
Also, much of the point isn't who has threatened to use them. The more nuclear weapons material floating around, the more chance that it lands in the hands of someone with no compunctions about actually using it. The Doomsday Clock gets closer to midnight every time another country gets nukes.
Maybe world leaders will finally be pushed towards diplomacy. As far as I see it, the region needs deterrence against foreign aggression. Just look at what Russia did to Ukraine after it gave up its nukes, or what the US did to Iraq and Libya. I don't want that to happen to any other country in the region. Iran, Saudi Arabia and others all have a right to nuclear weapons. Israel already introduced them to the region and they are as fanatical and genocidal as any country can be.
Nuclear proliferation is always bad news.
It's a gamble. Knowing other countries can kill you personally would dissuade leaders from starting wars. Assuming no one makes a mistake, of course.