Q COSTARICA — Former two-time President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias took to social media to criticize the war raging in the Middle East. He did so with a particularly critical message directed at the United States and the Trump administration.
“We woke up to a war in the Middle East with unpredictable consequences. And judging by what the warring parties are saying, it will last a long time and impoverish the entire world,” he wrote.
He recalled that in 2015, when he and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry celebrated the agreements that would limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities. That pact, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna, was abandoned by the first Trump administration, which deemed it weak.
Years later, Arias maintains that dialogue would be a better option than weapons, in a renewed critique of Trump.
“No agreement is perfect, and it doesn’t always fully satisfy all parties. But it’s better than leaving Pandora’s Box open to resolve differences through weapons. The war we are currently embroiled in began after the U.S. government decided not to continue negotiations with Iran in Geneva,” he stated.
He also claimed that he does not support the Iranian regime.
“My fight for peace in Central America in the 1980s aimed not only to silence the guns in the region but also to end the dictatorship in Nicaragua. I have dedicated my entire life to fighting tyrannies, and even more so the terrorist theocracies that murder their citizens. Therefore, I have no sympathy for the Iranian regime,” he added.
Did Trump’s promise change?
With the armed escalation, Arias also questioned the change in priorities that Trump promised for Washington.
“The start of this war by the United States and Israel signifies a severe shift in the priorities offered to the American people by then-candidate Donald Trump. The America First (MAGA) policy, which aimed to improve the socioeconomic well-being of the American people, was shelved, relegating foreign policy issues to a secondary position,” the former president noted.
“However, let us recall how President Trump boasted of having resolved a huge number of armed conflicts to justify to the Nobel Committee in Oslo that no one deserved the prize more than he did,” he continued.
He also listed other international decisions that have marked the current US administration.
“In the last year, President Trump’s administration changed its campaign promises. Its new priorities consisted of arbitrarily imposing tariffs on every country in the world, seizing Venezuelan oil with the widely applauded imprisonment of drug trafficker Nicolás Maduro, annexing Greenland and Canada, taking the Panama Canal away from Panama, eliminating resources allocated to international cooperation through USAID, and building, perhaps its most important priority, a ballroom in the White House,” Arias continued.
Israel giving orders and the business of war
In his message, Arias questioned the motives driving Washington’s military actions.
“The United States is the world’s leading economic and military power today and refuses to share the hegemonic power it currently holds with other nations that aspire to be part of a multipolar world, which they legitimately wish to build,” he stated.
“Today, this nation gives orders to the entire world, except for Israel, since, on the contrary, the White House receives orders from Jerusalem,” he added.
He also raised questions about the economic motivations that might be behind the decision to enter into war.
“Thanks to its immense military power, it is very sad that the United States resorts to military action so frequently and disregards dialogue and negotiation as the preferred tool for resolving conflicts,” Arias stated.
“The fundamental reason for this behavior is Washington’s need to feed the ‘military-industrial complex.’ I’m not the only one who thinks this way,” he concluded.