The Singapore summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will no doubt influence the American position toward Iran, just like the American stance on the Iranian issue will affect how North Korea conducts itself toward the U.S., claims Dr. Matthew Levitt, former deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Treasury and a key member of the team that put together the U.S. economic sanctions against Tehran.
Levitt, an expert in Islamist terrorism and the Middle East, spoke to Israel Hayom while in Israel for the American Jewish Congress 2018 Global Forum, which this week held its annual forum in Jerusalem for the first time.
During the transition period after the 2016 election, Levitt was summoned by the Trump team and asked for his opinion about the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. He recommended that the U.S. not pull out of the agreement and enforce it more rigorously. However, the deal itself was always "problematic," he tells Israel Hayom.
According to Levitt, the problematic nature of the deal has to do with its exclusive focus on Tehran's nuclear program and failure to link Iran to fostering and spreading terrorism, whereas many of the sanctions then in place against the regime were issued as a result of its terrorist activity or its ballistic missile program.
Levitt also has a strong opinion on sanctions against Iran – that they are not enough, and must be applied as part of a broader strategic goal. Levitt also believes that the U.S. will find it difficult to institute "effective" sanctions against Iran without the cooperation of the EU, which opposed the U.S. withdrawal from the deal.
Referencing his years of work at the U.S. Treasury, where he headed the team that put together the economic sanctions against Iran, Levitt said that the administration was not capable of handling multiple world crises simultaneously, and if the U.S. were to enter a long-term process with North Korea, issues such as brokering peace between the Israelis and Palestinians or Iran would take a back seat.
