President Donald Trump signed an agreement aimed at ending his war in Iran, but many noticed the symbolism of the location he chose to do it.
The 80-year-old president signed the so-called memorandum of understanding Wednesday during a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron in Versailles, the historic setting of the 1919 treaty that ended World War I, and CNN's Audie Cornish asked her panelists about his choice.
"This was signed at Versailles," she said. "Lots of things have been signedat Versailles. But usually when youcall something a Versaillestreaty, it's, in foreign languagepolicy land, kind of an insult,right? It's a self-defeatingagreement. What's your responseto the critics out there who aremaking those analogies?"
Germany signed the original Treaty of Versailles under protest, and the severe penalties it imposed ultimately destabilized its government and led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, and the "CNN This Morning" panelists agreed the symbolism was strange.
"President Trump didn't have tosign that peace deal at Versailles today," said Middle East expert Sina Azodi. "He could havehad an agreement in Februarybefore he decided to go to war.He was dragged into a war ofchoice that didn't have to [and] 13 Americans died, billions ofdollars [were] spent. He could havetaken the deal that the Iranianshad offered, and it was a prettygood deal compared to the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action], and I know that President Trumpis very sensitive to the war and JCPOA and Obama.But that was a very good dealthat he had on Feb. 26 in Geneva."
"Well, the hope is from the White House that 60 days fromnow, whatever they have will bemuch better than happened in2015," Cornish added.