A former US ambassador is criticizing what he views as a double standard in the American conversation following a series of comments by Donald Trump on Iran.
Michael McFaul, ambassador to Russia between 2012 and 2014, was making reference to Trump saying during a press conference on Thursday that he would seek to be "friendly with Iran" should he be elected to the White House.
"We're going to be friendly, I hope, with Iran. Maybe. But maybe not. But we're going to be friendly, I hope, we're going to be friendly," Trump said. He then added that the country "can't have a nuclear weapon, because once they do it's a whole different world."
Imagine if VP Harris said, "We're going to be friendly with Iran." The pile-on about her naivete and weakness would be massive and constant. But Trump says it and barely gets any attention. Strange. https://t.co/n0fHw10hFk
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) August 16, 2024
In a publication on X, McFaul said that if Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris had made such a comment, the "pile-on about her naivete and weakness would be massive and constant." "But Trump says it and barely gets any attention. Strange," he added.
Trump sought a tough approach to Iran during his presidency, most notably by withdrawing the U.S. from the nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama. He also imposed several sanctions as part of his "maximum pressure" campaign on the government.
According to a report by The Conversation, Iran's then-vice president Eshagh Jahangiri described those years as the "toughest" since the inception of the Islamic Republic. "Trump's campaign reduced Iran's oil exports to a historic low of under 400,000 barrels per day, significantly slashing the country's petrodollars, which represent about 70% of government revenues. Moreover, between 2018 and 2020, Iran's national currency depreciated by more than 600%," the outlet recalled.
Trump's recent comments also stand in contrast with recent reports about Iran being behind the hacking of his campaign. Praising the FBI's probe on the incident, he said that forces are "looking at it and they're doing it very professionally, and it looks like it's Iran." "I don't want to say exactly, but it was Iran," he added.
Several outlets began receiving internal documents from the campaign from an anonymous account. The outlets ultimately declined to publish them as they came from sources with ties to those responsible for the hacking.
Trump's campaign cited a Microsoft Threat Analysis report, which found that "Iranian actors have recently laid the groundwork for influence operations aimed at US audiences and potentially seeking to impact the 2024 US presidential election." "Looking forward, we expect Iranian actors will employ cyberattacks against institutions and candidates," the report said.
Trump said that the hacking took place because "Iran is no friend of mine, a lot of bad signals get sent." "The reason is because I was strong on Iran and I was protecting people in the Middle East that maybe they aren't so happy about that."
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