President Donald Trump says he has no intention of meeting with Iran during the UN General Assembly, which began on September 17 and will run until the end of the month. The United States imposed new sanctions on Iran days after Iran denied it attacked Saudi oil facilities this month.
WGBH News Analyst Charlie Sennott joined Boston Public Radio on Monday to explain the United States' fickle relationship with Iran.
"This week in New York in the UN, Iran is playing chess and Donald Trump is playing with matches in a region where 'volatile' is too soft a word," he said. "This is an administration in disarray on its diplomacy. This is a president whose inconsistencies and whose real missteps in diplomacy are coming to roost this week."
The renewed tension with Iran started when the Trump administration rescinded the Iran nuclear deal last year, which had aimed to diminish the nuclear program of Iran, Sennott said.
"When Trump scotched that deal, he threw into disarray our relationship with Iran and in the Middle East," he said. "Right now in the Middle East, particularly Iran, it's totally a time for diplomacy, not for more of this unpredictable and irrational warmongering that comes out of this administration."
Charlie Sennott is a WGBH News Analyst and executive director of The GroundTruth Project.
