Maybe Donald Trump was right about Iran this whole time. That may be an uncomfortable reality. The Iran deal was supposed to get Iran to stop uranium enrichment. The West must admit that it failed.

It should be stressed that Iran has continued developing its nuclear program for a couple of reasons. Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi voluntarily abandoned his program, but he was eventually overthrown. Who’s to say whether he would have eventually met his demise had he not abandoned his nuclear program, but it is unlikely NATO would have intervened had he possessed nuclear weapons.  This same line of reasoning is why North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un is ramping up his nuclear arsenal.

Ukraine surrendered its nuclear arsenal to Russia as part of the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 in exchange for security guarantees. As we all know now, these guarantees were not worth the paper they were written on. Now of course, Russia has ignored its previous commitments to respect Ukrainian sovereignty. That Iran is also providing Russia with drones and other arms speaks volumes.

Whether you like him or not, Trump, regardless of his motives, made the correct decision in removing the United States from the Iran nuclear deal; not because he was an optimist but a realist. A realist may appear cooler and meaner at first glance but is honest and prepares people for the realities of the world around them. An optimist always tries to see the positives even when he fails, but he cannot live with it and blames others for it.

Millions of Iranians chanted "Death to America" in demonstrations protesting the Jan. 2020 killing of General Qasem Soleiman by a US drone

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In 2021, unofficial talks between representatives of Iran and Saudi Arabia began. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed that Saudi Arabia wanted "good and special relations with Iran". On March 10, 2023, both sides announced that they wanted to return their relations to normal. The plan is to reopen the embassies within two months. China had taken on the role of mediator in drawing up this agreement. The media took the result as a sign of China's growing influence in the Middle East.

From the beginning of 2023 to March 20, 2023, according to Javaid Rehman (Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran), 143 executions were carried out by the Iranian state. In addition, according to the expert, at least 527 demonstrators have been shot or beaten to death by security forces since the protests began. It can be assumed that the regime will become more repressive and uncompromising.