If there’s one big no-no in international diplomatic negotiations, it’s for one of the players to physically threaten the envoys. The negotiators are there to try to reach an agreement, so when they are threatened with death by the leader of the opposing side, it can be a bit of a poison pill. But such rules are designed for mature adults who understand how international relations work. America, unfortunately, has a leader who sees the world through the lens of gangster movies and can’t keep his mouth shut.
We saw this illustrated over the weekend when President Donald Trump threatened the Iranian envoys in Switzerland with death if the Islamic Republic closed the Strait of Hormuz again, which the country had threatened to do if Israel did not stop bombing Lebanon. The president issued the warning in his usual classy fashion: “You close it and you won’t have a country. You won’t even make it back to your f**king country.”
