Why an Iran deal is too much effort for Trump
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ABC Listen. Podcasts, radio, news, music and more. Hi, I'm Patricia Carvellis, the host of Politics Now. And sometimes it can be hard to cut through all the noise from the Canberra bubble. But on the Politics Now podcast, bursting it wide open is our core business. I'm joined by the brightest minds at the ABC to break down the polyspeak and have a chat about what's actually going on behind the scenes. It's called Politics Now and you can find it on ABC Listener.
The US Vice President, J.D. Vance, is the chief negotiator, tasked with coming up with a peace deal with Iran. But can he achieve a lasting agreement? Today, Nate Swanson, who worked on Iran policy in the Obama, Biden and Trump administrations, on why a deal may never be done. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily.
Nate, we have spoken to you a few times since the start of the Iran war because you have worked with successive US governments on Iran policy, including, of course, under President Obama on the Iran deal that Trump tore up. Now, I wondered, could you remind me, first of all, just how difficult it was to come up with that deal in the first place? That was the JCPOA.
Yeah, it was an extremely difficult deal that took multiple years, of course, right? I mean, it started with a very quiet back-channel effort between the U.S. and Iran that was a year-long conversation that led to an interim deal, the Joint Plan of Action. But then it took two more years to negotiate the JCPOA, which was a 159-page document with multiple annexes. So it was a very time-consuming and long process.
Yeah.
And it is not what's happening now.
Yes. And when he actually terminated that deal in 2018, President Trump, he described it as defective at its core.
It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement. The Iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing, we know exactly what will happen.
But with the passage of time, how would you rate that deal now?
Well, in some ways, I think it's never looked better. That's not to say that the GSPA was perfect. It was not, right? It had some flaws. It was a time-limited deal, and its scope was limited in the nuclear program. But when you compare it to where we are now and everything that's happened since our withdrawal, it's hard to imagine kind of a worse outcome. Basically, now Iran is getting, you know, significant and some potentially even greater than JCPOA relief for really a commitment that, you know, Iran made in 1970 when they became a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, right? So, you know, the JCPOA has never really looked better.
Okay, so let's have a look at these negotiations then that are underway now between the United States and Iran, which are basically about fleshing out a peace deal to expand on a one and a half page memorandum of understanding between the two nations. Now, Donald Trump, he has given J.D. Vance, the vice president, the task of leading these negotiations. Tell me first, why Vance?
So I don't know exactly why the president has given Vance this responsibility. But my best guess is that one is Vance has been pretty open about his hesitancy to be in this war. And he's been quite public about that with media and with foreign diplomats. And so I think Vance sees this as an opportunity to end the war. And he's happy to be the person that does it, and I think he would like credit for it.
Who is J.D. Vance and what is his role in the Iran negotiations?
So I think that's why, you know, Vance essentially volunteered for this job.
He says that negotiations have been progressing well.
This is laying a foundation for what could be a truly transformed Middle East. But we haven't built a house yet. We're going to have to keep on building, and that's what we'll do.
But really, they just look like they're favoring Iran at this point, don't they?
Yeah, no, I think that's fair. I think that's right. I guess the caveat would be what is the objective of the United States? If it's to end the war, which I think is what J.D.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:28
2
Who is J.D. Vance and what is his role in the Iran negotiations?
4:28–6:25
3
What challenges did the U.S. face in negotiating the original Iran deal?
6:25–12:41
4
How has the perception of the Iran deal changed since its termination?
12:41–16:20
5
What are the current negotiations between the U.S. and Iran focused on?
16:20–16:26