Iran FM Raises Prospect of New Nuclear Deal With Trump

In an interview on CNN, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has suggested that there is a possibility for a new nuclear agreement with the United States, laying out the terms of what would be a side agreement to “augment” the existing deal.

The proposal would be a compromise between US demands for a totally new nuclear pact and the rest of the P5+1’s desire to keep the existing, hard-negotiated deal more or less intact.

The deal would insist that the US commit to sanctions relief, and Congress would have to ratify that policy. Iran would agree to sign and ratify the additional protocol to the IAEA, which they had previously voluntarily committed to. On top of that, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would formally ban nuclear weapons under Iranian law.

Khamenei and other top Iranian religious leaders have issued formal religious edicts banning nuclear weapons, which are effectively the law of the land. The US has mostly ignored that, however, and might consider legislation a more proper ban.

It’s not clear what the US position on this deal would be. Getting Congress to ratify any sanctions relief for Iran would be an uphill battle, but at the same time it’s not clear there is anything else the US even could conceivably want that Iran isn’t offering.