Iran’s Rouhani: Talks Depend on US Returning to Nuclear Deal

Iran will only talk wider deal if existing deal is implemented

Elaborating on a lot of Iranian statements saying that talks with the US might be possible on a broader nuclear deal, and seemingly conflicting statements saying that Iran wasn’t likely to talk to the US at all, President Hassan Rouhani said talks are conditioned on the US returning to the existing nuclear deal.

This explains why the bigger deal was presented as a sideline to the existing deal, and would add to Iranian restrictions if the US offered more on top of what was specified in the P5+1 deal from 2015.

President Trump withdrew from the P5+1 deal, saying it didn’t go far enough. Iran wants the deal both implemented and ratified by the US Congress, to ensure that the US doesn’t withdraw at some opportune moment again.

It’s incredibly unlikely that the US will agree to return to the deal for further talks, even though President Trump has talked up the idea of talks. Even then, it’s also hard to imagine Congress voting in favor of ratifying the deal after years of demonizing it.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.