1) Much has been said about the negative impact of the U.S withdrawal from the #JCPOA on U.S credibility. But what diminished U.S credibility is not just the fact that #Trump blatantly violated the #IranDeal and illegitimately walked out of the UNSC-endorsed Int' agreement.
2) It is often forgotten that the very pretexts the Trump administration invoked to kill the deal were just as damaging.
3) In particular, one of the pretexts was that the claim that Iran spent the money it received from the unfreezing of its assets to fund its regional activities.
4) Trump actually complained (and falsely so) that Iranians allocated the money they received to fund their armed forces (#IRGC) instead of this or that construction or civil project.
5) This may not look like a big deal of a statement to the average American but to the average Iranian and politicians - and probably to any other people with a history of anti-colonialism - this statement is interpreted very differently.
6) In fact, it sends the message that the US is not just looking to reach a deal but that it seeks to gain control over how a sovereign nation actually spends its money and allocates its budget.
7) Such statements look more like a colonialist attempt at "resource management" and an affront to sovereignty and independence than anything else.
8) Trump and #Pompeo's "12 points demand" to Iran and their "All or nothings" approach to North Korea also reinforces this perception.
9) As a matter of fact, Trump's sudden cancellation of his summit with #KimJongUn on the ground that North Korean leaders made statements he doesn't like further confirms the suspicion that making friends with the Americans would entail handing over your sovereignty to them..
10) And this, down to the point that your leaders would even lose their ability to freely speak about theirs! END/
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