Archive
In July and August, President Barack Obama defended the Iran nuclear deal in his public remarks. “There’s a reason why 99 percent of the world thinks that this is a good deal,” he said on July 27. “It’s because it’s a good deal.” Congress has until September 18 to either allow the agreement to… Read More
The debate surrounding the historic nuclear deal between Iran and the world’s six major powers played out among two nuclear experts, a sanctions specialist and an Iran scholar during an event co-hosted by USIP at the Woodrow Wilson Center on July 23. The discussion outlined key issues that will top… Read More
On July 24, Secretary of State John Kerry explained and defended the nuclear deal at the Council on Foreign Relations. The following is an excerpted transcript of his remarks. MR RICHARD HAASS, PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: The agreement calls for significant reductions in the… Read More
Secretary of State John Kerry defended the nuclear deal in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on July 23 and a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on July 28. Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Kerry of being “fleeced." But Kerry insisted… Read More
After Iran and the world's six major powers reached a final nuclear deal on July 14, the White House launched a Twitter account, @TheIranDeal, dedicated to promoting and disseminating information on the agreement. The following are a sample of tweets from the account.Watch @POTUS lay out the facts… Read More
Iranian officials involved in the nuclear negotiations are trying to sell the final deal at home, particularly to lawmakers. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif framed the agreement as a win for Iran during his remarks to parliament on July 21. “For 12 years, great powers have tried to prevent an… Read More
On July 20, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2231, endorsing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which will take effect 90 days after the council's endorsement. The resolution will expire ten years after adoption, and the council will “remove the Iranian nuclear… Read More
Robin Wright, a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, analyzed the nuclear deal and discussed her recent trip to Iran on NPR’s “On Point” with Tom Ashbrook. The following interview was broadcast on July 21.
A new Congressional Research Service report by Dianne Rennack lays out the legislative basis for sanctions on Iran, as well as the authority of Congress and the President to waive or lift sanctions. The ability to impose and remove sanctions with “some nimbleness and responsiveness to changing… Read More
Robin Wright (for The New Yorker)Iran’s revolutionaries are aging. Most are in their late fifties, sixties, or seventies. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, turned seventy-six this month. More than sixty per cent of Iran’s eighty million people are under the age of thirty-five. A baby-boom… Read More
The final nuclear deal is a “proxy for a more fundamental debate” in both Iran and the United States, according to Robert Litwak in the latest edition of the Wilson Center’s Viewpoints series. For Tehran, it is about identity and relations with the international community. For Washington, it raises… Read More
On July 18, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed support for the nuclear deal between Iran and the world’s major powers. “The result of a 10, 12-year struggle with the Islamic Republic is that they have been forced to tolerate the operation of several thousand centrifuges in the country… Read More
Iran is among the top four state actors who pose challenges to U.S. security, according to President Obama’s nominees for chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “I would put the threats to this nation in the following order: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and all of the… Read More
Robin Wright (for The New Yorker)The long slog of diplomacy with Iran—a pariah nation since its 1979 revolution—was always about more than the bomb. It was about the return of the world’s eighteenth-largest country—and its vast military, population, and consumer base—at a time when the Middle East… Read More
The following is a transcript of a press conference that President Obama held on July 15, focusing on the final nuclear deal with Iran. OBAMA: The comprehensive long-term deal that we achieved with our allies and partners to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon represents a powerful… Read More
In Iran, celebrations broke out in the streets immediately following the announcement of the final nuclear deal on July 14.Northern Tehran celebrates #IranDeal As I witnessed people were jubilant & vibrant pic.twitter.com/qHYlNTKkCJ— Sobhan Hassanvand (@Hassanvand) July 14, 2015 ونک قطعن الان… Read More
The following are excerpted remarks from Iranian officials on the final nuclear deal between Iran and the world's six major powers.Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei #Iran’s Leader replies president’s letter on nuclear issue: I’d like to extend my gratitude to the negotiating team.— Khamenei.ir… Read More
On July 15, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sent a letter to President Hassan Rouhani expressing gratitude to the negotiating team, one day after Iran and the world's six major powers agreed on a final nuclear deal. But he cautioned that "some" nations involved in the talks are "not… Read More
The announcement of a final nuclear deal drew strong reactions from the Middle East. Some nations, like Turkey and Iraq, welcomed the deal. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been an outspoken critic of the talks, called the deal “a stunning historic mistake.” Meanwhile, the… Read More
The announcement of a final nuclear deal on July 14 prompted mixed reactions from members of Congress. House Speaker John Boehnor (R-OH) said, "if in fact it’s as bad a deal as I think it is at this moment, we’ll do everything we can to stop it.” Senate minority whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), however… Read More
On July 14, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi agreed on a road map to resolve “past and present outstanding issues” on Iran’s nuclear program. Amano said the road map laid out a plan for the next several… Read More
Robin Wright (for The New Yorker)After nineteen days of marathon negotiations and four missed deadlines, Iran and the world’s six major powers announced a nuclear deal in Vienna this morning. The exhaustive and elusive diplomacy—sustained by an unsettling combination of Twizzlers, gelato, string… Read More
On July 14, senior administration officials held a background conference call to discuss the final nuclear agreement with Iran. The following are excerpts from the transcript.SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I’m going to start and then turn it over to my colleague to sort of walk you through at… Read More
After the announcement of a final nuclear deal between Iran and the world's six major powers on July 14, the White House published the following text and series of infographics describing "how the U.S. and the international community will block all of Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon." After… Read More
On July 14, Secretary of State John Kerry said that parameters from the Lausanne framework “have been amplified in ways that make this [final] agreement even stronger.” The following is a transcript of his remarks in Vienna shortly after the final deal between Iran and the world’s six major powers… Read More
On July 14, President Hassan Rouhani welcomed the nuclear deal as a "victory" for Iran in a televised address. A dubbed video by Press TV is below, followed by excerpted remarks posted on his Twitter account. Many people prayed for the #negotiating team during the holy month of Ramadan; I'm… Read More
On July 14, President Barack Obama welcomed the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program in a televised address. The following is a transcript. Today, after two years of negotiations, the United States, together with our international partners, has achieved something that decades of animosity has not… Read More
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Vienna, 14 July 2015 PREFACE The E3/EU+3 (China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States, with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) and the Islamic Republic of Iran… Read More
On July 14, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced that Iran and the world's six major powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States - had reached a final nuclear agreement. The following is a transcript of… Read More
On July 13 and 14, the front pages of Iranian newspapers reflected widespread anticipation of a nuclear deal between Iran and the world’s six major powers. Reports from the Vienna talks suggested a deal could be announced within a day. Conservative papers framed the agreement as a potential… Read More