G-20 Gives Trump a Chance to Clarify His Iran Policy
The U.S. president may arrive in Osaka as close as he will ever be to having a sympathetic audience on Iran.
Where the rubber chicken meets the road.
Photographer: Guido Bergmann/Bundesregierung via Getty Images
When President Trump arrives at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka on Friday, many of his peers will want to discuss bilateral crises with him: China’s Xi Jinping about their trade spat, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the purchase of Russian missile-defense systems, Japan’s Shinzo Abe about Trump’s bizarre notion about ending their bilateral defense pact. They will also want to hear from him about a crisis that affects them all: the confrontation with Iran.
That crisis has grown more acute since the group last gathered. Neutral shipping has been attacked, oil installations bombed, an American drone shot down, a Supreme Leader placed under sanctions. Despite protestations from Washington and Tehran that neither side wants war, the conclave in Osaka will rightly be anxious about the enormous human cost and great economic harm of such a conflict.