Europe: Sorry, Iran, Trump Says We Can’t Do Business with You

by GARY LEUPP

Dear Iran:

We regret to inform you we will have to cancel that $ 12 billion deal with you to provide civilian airliners for your people by Airbus.

Airbus has been informed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that its existing license to do business in Iran “will be revoked.” The U.S. ambassador to Germany has ordered German firms to “immediately” drop business in Iran.

We regret the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, its clear contempt for principles of free trade, and its attempt to sabotage prospects for peace and prosperity. But since we will be excluded from the U.S. market if we pursue normal marketplace relations with you, we will probably have to bow to economic realities and obey Washington.

We realize that in doing so we will meet with law suits for breach of contract, as we deserve to be. But again, it’s not our fault; we like you still smolder under this insufferable U.S. global hegemony.

We sincerely apologize that our commitment to the Atlantic Alliance which weds us at the hip to U.S. imperialism precludes our desire for peace in the Middle East. We appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,

Europe

Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, (AK Press). He can be reached at: gleupp@tufts.edu

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/11/europe-sorry-iran-trump-says-we-cant-do-business-with-you/