Foreign policy lashing

Trump gets foreign policy lashing at U.N. meeting

The president sat stone-faced as international leaders criticized his foreign policy both overtly and obliquely.

By NAHAL TOOSI

As President Donald Trump sat stone-faced at the head of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, the criticisms of his foreign policy rolled in overtly and obliquely.

France warned that dealing with Iran couldn’t just be about “sanctions and containment,” a clear rebuke of Trump’s decision to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in favor of an attempt to isolate the country through new economic penalties.

Equatorial Guinea said nations too wedded to “sovereignty” could undermine the welfare of the international community, a likely reference to Trump’s sovereignty-focused speech Tuesday before the entire U.N. body.

And then there was Bolivia, which brought up the U.S. role in Iran’s 1953 coup at the start of fusillade of criticisms that painted an America as too quick to turn to war instead of diplomacy.

“The United States could not care less about human rights or justice," Bolivian President Evo Morales said, just steps away from the U.S. president.

The verbal slams were predictable: There is widespread unease at the U.N. with Trump’s “America first” outlook, and in particular his aggressive stance on Iran.

But Wednesday’s spectacle was nonetheless striking, as it involved international leaders confronting the U.S. commander in chief in person with the world watching.

The admonishments were also levied during Trump’s first time chairing a U.N. Security Council meeting; this one was held during the main week of the annual U.N. General Assembly.

The Trump administration appeared to have anticipated such a reaction. Originally, U.S. officials said the meeting would focus on Iran and its military aggression in the Middle East. But upon realizing that Trump could find himself isolated on the subject, U.S. officials decided to broaden the agenda to cover the importance of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Regardless, the various world leaders at the table took advantage of their opportunity to speak to cover a range of issues.

Trump himself did the same, alleging in his opening remarks that China was trying to meddle in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections because it did not like his positions on trade.

“They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade,” the president said. “And we are winning on trade. We are winning at every level. We don't want them to meddle or interfere in our upcoming election.”

But Trump also used his remarks to slam Iran and defend his decision to quit the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions on the Middle East country in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Trump has said he wants a broader deal with Iran that tackles other aspects of the Iranian regime’s behavior, including its ballistic missile program and sponsorship of terrorism.

“The Iranian regime exports violence, terror and turmoil,” Trump said, adding that the nuclear deal, struck under the Obama administration, was “horrible.”

U.S. allies were careful to be gentle in their criticisms.

French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that he agreed with Trump that Iran’s Islamist leaders are engaged in many nefarious activities. But he once again reiterated his country’s commitment to the Iran nuclear deal, which France and other global powers are still trying to save despite the U.S. departure.

“We need to build together a long-term strategy in order to manage this crisis and it cannot boil down to just sanctions and containment,” Macron said of Iran.

The security council setting offered a rare opportunity for some smaller countries to raise their concerns to Trump with everyone else watching.

The president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, spoke in support of multilateral institutions, which have long drawn Trump's ire. The Equatorial Guinean leader's chiding comments about “sovereignty” came a day after Trump, in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly, declared that the U.S. would never abandon its “sovereignty” in the face of increasing “globalism.”

The Equatorial Guinean leader also spoke in support of U.N. peacekeeping operations. The U.S. has repeatedly questioned the funding of such efforts.

Bolivia has long been a vocal critic of U.S. foreign policy, and Morales did not hold back on Wednesday.

He raised what he described as past U.S. failures in the Middle East and North Africa — including the chaotic aftermaths of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its operations in Libya — to warn against what he cast as U.S. designs on Iran.

Morales even castigated the Trump administration’s earlier policy of separating migrant children from their parents along the southern border, and putting the children in “cages.”

Noting that the U.S. has a history of intervening in Iranian politics — notably the 1953 coup — Morales warned the world that American talk of caring for the rights of the Iranian people was nothing more than a ploy.

The U.S. always couples its international interventions with a “propaganda campaign that it is acting in the cause of justice, freedom and democracy,” Morales said.

The Trump administration insists it is not seeking regime change in Iran, but that it just wants the Iranian regime to change its behavior.