The Biden administration’s effort to revive the Iran nuclear deal is on the brink of collapse, raising a possibility the 2015 accord was designed to prevent. U.S. and European leaders will be forced to find a new way to limit Iran’s nuclear program, which has been enriching uranium well beyond levels allowed by the prior agreement’s structure.
The faltering negotiations underline a deeper issue, and that is the decades-long cycle of distrust and recrimination that has the U.S.-Iran relationship at one of its lowest points since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In this episode of History As It Happens, historian John Ghazvinian and the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi discuss the potential consequences if the 2015 deal is not brought back, thereby leaving in place harsh sanctions on Iran’s economy.
“The Iranians under those circumstances say they have already made a decision. If the U.S. snaps back sanctions, or if the U.S. and Europe snap back sanctions at the U.N., the Iranians will walk out of the NPT altogether,” said Mr. Parsi, referring to the landmark non-proliferation treaty.
Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a fatwa in 2003 declaring all nuclear weapons a sin against Islam. But Khamenei is now 83, and there is a chance Iran’s next supreme leader may be willing to go past the West’s red line to full weapons-level enrichment, Mr. Ghazvinian said.
“He has been adamant that there should be no discussion of Iran exiting the nuclear non-proliferation treaty… We may find ourselves in the next few years in a situation with a new leadership in Iran, potentially drawn more from the Revolutionary Guards, that feels different, that feels enough is enough,” Mr. Ghazvinian said.
Listen to the full episode with Mr. Ghazvinian and Mr. Parsi by downloading this episode of History As It Happens.
