Iran, US likely to start re-negotiations on nuclear deal

A former IAEA fellow and its deputy director-general has told Mehr News that it should not be surprising if Iran and the US were to start some pre/re-negotiations on JCPOA once Trump takes over as president.

In an interview conducted by Mehr News International Service, Olli Hainonen talked about the possible scenarios for Iran’s nuclear deal once Donald Trump takes over as President of the United States. The following is the full text of the interview: 

President-elect Donald Trump noted during his presidential campaign that Obama gave more points to Iran on nuclear agreement and voiced his intention to hold a new round of negotiations with Iran in regard to the nuclear deal. What will Trump ultimately do about the deal?

Currently the transition teams of President Obama and President-Elect Trump are meeting to review issues, including topics related to US national security. Mr. Trump is also receiving other security briefings. This gives the Trump team additional insights, which they may not have had available publicly. It is also customarily for a new Administration to conduct a thorough review of US policies. Such a review has taken in the past about 100 days on major topics.

When we look back to the deal’s negotiating history, the US initiated some of the negotiations through the “Oman channel” parallel to the P5+1 process. Also during the recent JPA, JPOA, and JCPOA processes, many details were first negotiated between the US and Iran, before bringing them to the P5+1 framework. We should not be surprised if Iran and the US were to start some pre/re-negotiations, noting also that for example, Mr. Salehi [Iran’s nuclear chief] recently expressed his dissatisfaction on some of the JCPOA’s language.