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What’s in the new Iran deal?
INTERNATIONAL
What’s in the new Iran deal, and what’s holding it up?
Ron Kampeas
(JTA)—Last month, the chances that the United States would rejoin the Iran nuclear deal seemed higher than they had been in years.
CNN and Reuters reported that Iran had dropped multiple demands in the ongoing negotiations over a new accord that would update the original reached in 2015. Senior U.S. officials were confident that the new deal would be sealed in days.
Then on Monday, August 29, Iran’s government said it wanted more time— extending into September—to examine the U.S. response to a recent proposal. It’s no longer clear if Iran has made the concessions that U.S. officials were so sure about, and the light that international diplomats thought they were seeing at the end of the tunnel is beginning to dim—again.
How did we get to this stalemate? And what will it mean if the United States rejoins the pact, or chooses not to? Let’s dive in.
What was in the original Iran deal?
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as it’s officially named, came about under the Obama administration and traded sanctions relief for rollbacks in Iran’s nuclear program. President Obama and many Democrats argued that it was the best method for diplomatically putting a stop to Iran’s advancing ambitions of obtaining nuclear weapons. Israel has reviled the deal since the start, arguing that Iran—which routinely calls for Israel’s violent destruction—is not to be trusted. Several Jewish lawmakers agonized over whether or not to support their president and the deal, which became a signature foreign policy achievement, or to heed the condemnation from Israel and many Jews in their local communities.
In signing the JCPOA, Iran agreed to reduce its stockpile to a small amount of uranium enriched to 3.67%—a level needed for medical research, unusable for weaponization—and to effectively end the production of plutonium. It also agreed to allow regular inspections of its nuclear facilities. The other parties in the deal—including Russia, China, Britain, Germany, and France, joined by major trade partners like India and South Korea—agreed to end sanctions targeting Iran’s nuclear program (which Iran continues to insist is for non-military purposes) and its banking and oil sectors.
The deal’s critics decried what they said were fatal flaws: The limitations on Iran’s enrichment program had expiration dates, and several concerns were left out of the agreement, including Iran’s missile program, its disruptive actions in the Middle East and its backing of terrorists worldwide.
Why isn’t the United States currently signed onto the pact?
Republicans also loathed the deal, but for the first year of his presidency, Donald Trump heeded advice of top advisers who said pulling out of the deal would be worse than remaining in it to police Iran. Then, starting in May 2018, he opted for a program of maximum pressure on Iran, leaving the deal, reinstating the suspended sanctions and adding many more new ones. In 2020, he ordered the killing of one of Iran’s top military officials, Qassem Soleimani.
In retaliation, Iran started increasing its enrichment of fissile material to unprecedented levels. It is now believed to be just weeks away from having enough enriched uranium to manufacture a nuclear weapon, as opposed to a year away, which was the case when all sides were abiding by the deal.
While campaigning for the presidency, Joe Biden pledged to seek reentry into the deal, saying that pulling out had allowed Iran to get closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon. He said
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