Former U.S. President Barack Obama cast doubt on the “Epic Fury” operation in Iran, saying the United States has either returned to the status quo or is “worse off” now than before. “We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died.”
Obama made the comments in an interview with NBC’s “Today” when asked about President Donald Trump’s new memorandum of understanding.
1 View gallery
Former US President Barack Obama
(Photo: SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
Trump, it should be recalled, withdrew during his first term from the nuclear agreement Obama signed with Iran just three years earlier, in 2015 — even though White House officials said he had not read a word of it. The current president frequently speaks out against Obama and the agreement he signed. At the end of the G7 summit, he also claimed that “Obama’s deal would have led to nuclear weapons.”
Trump said Iran had exploited the world and the Middle East, while arguing that his deal would prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. He claimed Obama’s agreement would have led to Israel’s destruction, as well as the destruction of the broader Middle East, had he not intervened.
Obama said: “I am very happy to see a ceasefire. And I’m hopeful that it holds. During my time, Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons. This administration, or a prior version of this administration, pulled out of it, which caused then Iran to develop more nuclear capacity.”
He added that he does not understand the logic behind going to war this past February.
The former president said in the interview: “There’s no doubt that we are going through a period right now of disruption, polarization. We feel as if our democracy, our civic habits and virtues, our shared understanding of how we treat each other has started to crumble. We all have the capacity to feel a civic responsibility to make sure our government works. We all play a part in assuring that our elected officials are accountable. And that’s not something that I think we can afford to suggest is — is behind us.”
In interviews he gave this week to promote the opening of his presidential library in Chicago, which is named after him, Obama was asked repeatedly about the nuclear agreement.
Obama said the deal had been reached through nearly unprecedented global cooperation, spanned 150 pages and was carefully detailed. He said Western intelligence agencies, including the Mossad and CIA, agreed it was effective, adding that 97% of Iran’s uranium was removed without the need for war and that there was no legitimate reason to withdraw from the agreement.