‘He walked into Iran’s trap’: Ambassador Wendy Sherman argues Trump’s reckless policies led to US embassy attack

In an opinion piece published in USA Today this Thursday, former U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs Wendy R. Sherman argues that President Trump's abandoning of the Iranian nuclear deal led to the crisis in Iraq where backers of Iranian-linked militias overtook a US embassy compound.

Sherman mentions the "strange bedfellows" that emerged in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion.

"The U.S. troops worked alongside Iraqi and Iranian militia to destroy a common enemy, the Islamic State terrorism group," Sherman writes. "And even as Washington was confronting Iran over its nuclear program and malign behavior elsewhere, we maintained an uneasy coexistence in Iraq, where Tehran holds considerable sway."

That delicate balance was destroyed when Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, which gave Iran's hardliners more power, according to Sherman.

"Iran’s nefarious activities in [Iraq] have increased, because terror is not an expensive undertaking and so is largely immune from economic sanctions," writes Sherman. "Indeed, [Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard] has happily returned to controlling the lucrative black market under Trump’s sanctions. And Iran, after complying with the deal for nearly three years, now confronted with 'maximum pressure' and no diplomatic track, has begun to unwind its compliance."

According to Sherman, if the Trump administration truly understood the dynamics of Iraq, it would have predicted the attack on the US Embassy in Iraq.

"Administration officials might have worked more closely with the Iraq government to think through the best way forward. Instead, in essence, Trump walked into Iran’s trap."

Read the full piece over at USA Today.