As a deal between the US and Iran appears close, questions have emerged about how the terms of US President Donald Trump's agreement with Iran compare with the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" (JCPOA), that Trump scuttled during his first term.
According to analysts, while Trump has attempted to link the potential deal with Iran to expanding the Abraham Accords to make it more palatable to Israel, it also reflects Trump's efforts to argue that his deal is better than that of former US President Barack Obama.
Trump also appears to be preempting expected criticism of any agreement with Iran.
He previously wrote that any deal with Tehran would be "the complete opposite of the disaster known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated by the failed Obama administration".
"I do not make deals like that," he added, making similar remarks this week.
The latest developments come after the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran towards the end of February, with Trump announcing a ceasefire on 8 April, and talks underway on a deal that remains unconfirmed so far. What did the 2015 agreement stipulate? The main condition in the 2015 agreement was to cap uranium enrichment at 3.67% for 15 years and reduce enriched uranium stockpiles to less than 300 kilograms.
This led Iran to give up around 11 tonnes of enriched uranium, part of which had enrichment levels ranging between 20% and 40%, and transfer it to Russia, meaning the disposal of around 97% of its enriched stockpile. The agreement also included reducing the number of centrifuges to around 5,000 instead of 19,000.
A key term of the agreement included transparency regarding Iran's nuclear programme, paving the way for international organisations to inspect and monitor it as part of the deal. The JCPOA aimed to restrict the Iranian nuclear programme through a mechanism which allowed international oversight and limited Iran's ability to develop a programme of a military nature, ensuring its peaceful nature. JCPOA's windfall Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran gained access to a longstanding financial settlement worth $1.7 billion, comprising $400 million previously paid into a U.S. trust fund and about $1.3 billion in interest.
The agreement also eased sanctions, unlocking access to frozen Iranian assets that were widely estimated at about $100 billion in gross terms, though officials said only about $50 billion was immediately usable after debts and other obligations were taken into account. What is Trump currently calling for? Trump has repeatedly demanded that Iran confirm it will not seek to acquire a nuclear weapon, a commitment already set out in the 2015 agreement.
He has also backed extending the deal to 20 years, adding five years to the original timeframe.
As with the 2015 agreement, Trump wants Iran to give up its stockpile of enriched uranium, something Tehran has yet to formally accept.
That prompted Trump this week to float new options, including having the US take possession of the enriched uranium and destroy it, or destroying it inside or outside Iran under US supervision and UN certification.
Even if the stockpile were destroyed, the current quantity of highly enriched uranium, estimated at around 440 kilograms, was produced largely after Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal.
As for Iran’s frozen assets, Washington has hinted that the issue could be discussed if Tehran complies with its demands. How has the US been impacted by the current war? After the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, Tehran was able to close the Strait of Hormuz , disrupting global shipping through one of the world's most important energy waterways, resulting in the halting of around 20% of global oil and gas supplies.
Tehran is now using the Strait as leverage to impose conditions it was unable to impose during the Obama administration's nuclear agreement talks. Despite Trump's attempts to pressure Iran, whether through sanctions or threats of military force, Tehran still refuses Washington's conditions of permanently ending uranium enrichment. Why is Trump pushing Arab states to join the Abraham Accords? Trump is pressing Gulf and Islamic countries to join the Abraham Accords, in what has been described as an attempt to burnish the image of a possible agreement with Iran and allow him to sell it to his domestic base as an improvement on Obama’s deal amid mounting criticism.
The move has led some commentators and analysts to ask whether Trump is trying to increase pressure on those countries to push them towards normalisation with Israel, before presenting it to the American public as a political achievement.
Two US officials told Axios on 28 May that US and Iranian negotiators had reached agreement on a 60-day memorandum of understanding aimed at extending the ceasefire and opening talks on Iran’s nuclear programme, although US President Donald Trump has yet to give final approval.
Other US officials said Trump’s approval could take several days. Article translated from Arabic by Afrah Almatwari. To read the original, click here .