Trump addresses the UN focused on Iran and its political base

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Washington (CNN) - Donald Trump, president of the United States, and his senior officials address the annual meeting of world leaders of the United Nations this week focused on a narrow agenda that reflects internal political concerns, the foreign policy challenge posed by Iran and, by design or non-compliance, a continuous disconnection with many traditional US allies about climate change.

When world leaders meet on Monday to focus on the UN Climate Action Summit, the United States will send a lower-level State Department official who will not speak, leaving him silent on an issue that the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has called the world a "direct existential threat".

Instead, the president will lead an event on religious freedom, an issue in favor of evangelicals who are part of the political base he trusts to win reelection. Trump and his Japanese counterpart are also expected to announce a trade agreement. The president took advantage of the economic anxiety of the voters during his campaign, regularly criticizes the "unfair" trade agreements and promotes the benefits of the bilateral pacts that give the United States an advantage.

• EXCLUSIVE: Iran threatens 'total war' in case of military attack

The furor over reports that Trump pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, during a call earlier this summer, may also outshine the president's week, especially on Wednesday when he will meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

“An attack against everyone”

And while Trump and his administration have been openly skeptical about the value of international organizations and the UN in particular, this year they will focus on pressuring the world community to join their effort to control Iran. An effort that could be an uphill battle, some analysts say.

The United Nations General Assembly is taking place in the wake of an attack on Saudi oil facilities that Yemen-based Houthi rebels locked in an ongoing war with Saudi Arabia and its allies for control of the country, say they led to cape. Iran has denied responsibility, but the Trump administration insists that it is where the fault lies.

In the coming days, the Trump administration will emphasize that point at the hearing in New York and will emphasize that the victim was not only Saudi Arabia, but the international community. The attacks, attributed to a flotilla of drones and missiles, affected the world's largest oil processing plant and an oil field and raised world oil prices.

"It is important to remember that the attack on Saudi Arabia's facilities is an attack against everyone," a White House official said in a call with reporters about the administration's plans for the UN.

• Attacks in Saudi Arabia: Saudi Lieutenant suggests that Iranian weapons were used

The official said that was true in particular for Asia, which depends heavily on oil supplies in the Middle East.

The United States will likely pressure other countries to support a UN Security Council resolution on Iran and join the maritime security coalition that Washington is building to patrol the Persian Gulf, analysts said. US officials will discuss their efforts against Iran in bilateral meetings and group events, said the White House official, adding that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also convene a meeting of Gulf and Middle East allies to discuss how to counter Iran.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper highlighted the international responsibility to act at the Pentagon on Friday night, when he announced that the United States will send additional troops to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Esper detailed Iran's threats to global stability, citing the economic cost of the attacks, interruptions in international shipping in the Persian Gulf and the demolition by Iran of a US drone in June.

"Iran has increased costs in the international economy," Esper said. "The international community has a responsibility to protect the global economy," as well as its rules and regulations.

“I always like a coalition”

When asked how important it is to build a coalition to go to Iran, Trump said on Friday: “Well, I always like a coalition. And sometimes you realize that people have earned a lot of money I would like in the coalition ... other countries - Germany, France, Russia, many other countries - earned a lot of money with Iran. And we don't make money with Iran… everyone else is making money and not us. ”

Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the administration “will seek to see if they can get international support because it is an Iranian attack, not in Saudi Arabia, but in oil markets around the world , the message will be, this was an attack on their oil, on which their economies depend. ”

The efforts of the United States to obtain a Security Council resolution that condemns Iran or takes action against it are not likely to go anywhere, as China and Russia have silently supported Iran in the face of the US pressure campaign . "I am skeptical," said Dubowitz.

The administration "will see, leaving the General Assembly, what they have been able to do in the diplomatic channel and then, whatever the sanctions and other options available," he added.

Skeptical allies

While resistance from China and Russia is to be expected, Alex Vatanka, a member of the Middle East Institute, said the administration may also have difficulty gathering allies that have been affected by the administration's exit from the nuclear deal with Iran. and his campaign of maximum pressure against Tehran.

Where Europe, China, Russia and the United States were once united to pressure Iran to negotiate the 2015 agreement, Vatanka said that the search for increasingly intense sanctions by the Trump administration has threatened the nuclear agreement and "in the process undermined the coalition we had created. ”

Europe has worked to keep the nuclear pact alive.

"They don't want to be part of a road to war against Iran because they don't trust American policy on Iran," Vatanka said. “They don't think it's consistent, they don't think it can stand up to scrutiny. That does not mean that Iran is innocent, it is not. They just don't see how the 'maximum pressure' takes them to the finish line. ”

• The attack on the Saudi oil field changes the rules of the game in the Gulf confrontation

Vatanka highlighted the criticism, saying: “Here we are today in the fall of 2019. Can we point to a place in the region where Iran is less present, where Iran is behaving better? For me, this is how the success of politics is measured. ”

European countries and other parties to the nuclear agreement with Iran have also been cautious with the speed with which the United States declared its certainty that Iran is responsible for the Saudi attack, said Vatanka and others.

The administration has not presented evidence supporting its claim that Iran is responsible and has set aside claims of Houthi responsibility. "This was an Iranian attack," Pompeo said Wednesday. "It is not the case that they can outsource the devastation of 5% of the world's global energy supply and think that they can be absolved of responsibilities."

Pompeo, who returned from a trip to the Middle East on Friday morning, told reporters he was there to build a coalition to deter Tehran. And he made it clear that the Trump administration will use the UN meeting to gather support. "I am sure that in New York we will talk about this and that the Saudis will too," said Pompeo.

He then pointed to Iran as a global threat, saying Trump had directed his team to “prevent them from having the ability to subscribe to Hezbollah, the Shiite militias in Iraq, their own missile program, everything they have done to represent a threat to the world".

"We all pray"

Few think the United States will take a military response, despite troop movements and even despite Trump's mixed messages, but many observers expect world leaders to use their speeches before the General Assembly to issue timely warnings against use. of force and its destabilizing effects in the Middle East.

Speaking at the Oval Office on Friday after announcing a new round of sanctions against Iran, Trump said it would be easier for him to launch air strikes, as some Republicans in Congress and other hawks have defended.

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Instead, the president made his decision to take the most difficult path and said he is not considering a direct military response, even when he emphasized the power of fire under his command.

"We have the most powerful army in the world, by far," Trump said. “There is no one near. As you know, we have spent a lot and hopefully, and we pray to God so that we never have to use it, but we have completely renewed and bought new nuclear units. And the rest of our armed forces are all new. ”

“Nuclear energy is now at a level that has never been before. And I can only tell you because I know, I know the problems of nuclear energy. I know the damage that ... I know what happens. And I want to tell you: We all wait, and Scott waits: we all pray that we never have to use nuclear energy. But there is no one who has something similar to what we have. ”

Ryan Browne and Jennifer Hansler of CNN contributed to this report.

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