President Trump, you will be larger than life if you draw some lessons from John F Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, strength yes, but exercise it with wisdom and compassion, at home and abroad.
The only Middle Eastern nuclear power not under IAEA, supported by 3 Western nuclear powers, systematically sanction and attack, assassinate leaders, of Iran.
The bombing of Iran expands precedents for preemptive attacks on the basis of spurious grounds of for preemptive attack. This is extremely dangerous, wrecking the whole edifice of International norms and rules.
Israel is not under an international nuclear control regime. It is one of a handful of countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has not placed its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards.
With the tragic fate in 2011 of Muammar Gaddafi in mind, the ongoing brazen attacks on Iran North Korean Kim Jong-un will pursue further his nuclear capabilities. South Korea, Japan, China, US, all of us, should get used to an increasingly armed nuclear North Korea that will not tolerate a minimum of the brazen treatment dispensed on Iran.
If President Trump is still interested in a legacy crowned with the Nobel Peace Prize, he should not listen to warmongers that populate Washington. He should partner with China, India, Saudi Arabia and address current middle east pandemonium, clearly endorse the two State Solution for Israel and Palestine based on 1967 borders, lift sanctions against Iran, enable it to develop nuclear capabilities for peaceful civilian use.
And continue the policies initiated in his first term in office, engage again President Kim Jong-un, renew talks and normalise relations with North Korea.
The US should not aspire to be neither the henchman nor the Human Rights Commissioner of the World.
President Trump, you will be larger than life if you draw some lessons from John F Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, strength yes, but exercise it with wisdom and compassion, at home and abroad.
J Ramos-Horta
