The dominant feature of the Trump administration has been dishonesty. From the first day, competitively arguing that inauguration crowds were larger than they appeared, to Sarah Huckabee Sanders denying the meaning of words, to Donald Trump's regular sorties into imaginary realms in which numbers have no meaning and the nation's economy, defense, and holiday celebrations have all turned from terrible to spectacular, White House spokespersons, Cabinet members, and petty functionaries all predictably respond to unsatisfying news reports by declaring them "fake news," to use Trump's preferred phrasing, and instead insisting that the truth is something different.
It should be obvious to even the most dimwitted observer that an American government known for daily gaslighting efforts in service to its own political or policy desires would be treated with enormous skepticism in the international community when presenting new "intelligence" assessments making the case for a new multilateral war. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is leading an effort to sell U.S. allies on an administration determination that attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman were the work of the Iranian military. It is not going well. The Washington Post reports that “Pompeo bristled at the suggestion that the U.S. conclusion was under question, including German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas’s request for more information because the video was ‘not enough.’ ‘The German foreign minister has seen a great deal more than just that video,’ Pompeo said on CBS. ‘He will continue to see more.’”
The reasons for foreign skepticism are obvious. The Trump administration lies regularly, about everything. The United States has a very recent history of presenting misleading intelligence assessments as justification for military force in the Middle East. And Trump and team have been unsubtle in their attempts to ratchet up tensions with Iran, unilaterally withdrawing the United States from a treaty blocking Iran from engaging in efforts to build nuclear weapons, imposing stiff sanctions, and strong-arming allies into complying with those sanctions regardless of their own treaty agreements.
This has led to the current situation, one in which the United States government regularly condemns Iran for alleged violations of a treaty that, according to the United States government, no longer exists.
Iran has responded to the escalations by applying counterpressure to the remaining treaty signers—and in its latest move, is now notifying those nations that it has accelerated the production of low-enriched uranium for its nuclear power plants and will be producing some higher-enriched uranium for its research reactor, which will soon violate the treaty's set limits on its uranium stockpiles. (Trump's on-brand response to this news has been a verbatim retweet of a Fox News chyron.)
So things are escalating, to be sure—but in an environment in which the United States' pronouncements are treated with extreme skepticism on the world stage. This was inevitable: The Trump administration had no concern for whether or not it was seen as shameless liars at any point in the past, and is correctly seen as shameless liars in the present. There is presumably a diplomatic downside to being known as compulsively dishonest; in any event, it is not something that Pompeo and other administration liars will be easily able to talk their way out of.