Trump Gives Peace a Chance?

Trump Gives Peace a Chance?

By Finian Cunningham

September 11, 2019 "ICH" - With the super-hawk John Bolton kicked out of the White House nest there is media speculation that President Donald Trump may at last be spreading dovish wings in foreign policy.

It certainly seems an unmitigated good thing that Bolton is finally gone. The deranged warmonger was always a dreadful danger for inciting war. As Trump said derisively of him previously: “There’s not a war that he never liked”. (Which begs the question of why Trump hired him in the first place.)

As the president’s former National Security Adviser, Bolton was said to have hampered Trump’s efforts at diplomacy with Russia, Iran and North Korea. He was a major opponent to the plan for withdrawing US troops from Syria. And apparently, Trump was furious at Bolton for winding up the regime-change debacle over Venezuela, which has since fizzled out.

But it was reportedly his objections to a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan that forced Trump to finally heave Bolton aside after months of building frustration.

The question is: does the move indicate a softening, or more reasonable return to diplomatic relations by the White House?

Russia declined to comment on the shake-up in the Trump cabinet, saying it was a matter of American internal affairs. However, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov noted that Moscow will base its assessment on actions take by the Trump administration, not mere announcements.

For its part, Iran demurred by saying that Bolton’s departure is of little import. Tehran said it has not changed its categorical position, which is that talks with Washington can only take place when the US ends its economic warfare and returns to abiding by the 2015 international nuclear accord.

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