Iran looks to Europe over fate of nuclear deal
At this stage, Iran believes only the European signatories to the nuclear deal can prevent it from collapsing, whether the United States walks away from it or not.
As concerns grow every day about whether or not the United States will abandon the nuclear deal with Iran, Tehran is weighing its options in different possible scenarios.
Donald Trump has long vowed to tear up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), pledging such a move even before he was elected as president. However, despite his apparent personal desire to do so, this has not happened yet. Most analysts attribute this to the opposition shown by European parties to the JCPOA, as well as the resistance of Trump’s own advisers and Cabinet members.
On July 17, The New York Times wrote about the Trump administration’s meeting to certify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal for a second time. According to the report, Trump had spent 55 minutes of the hourlong meeting telling his secretaries and national security advisers that he did not want the deal. While Trump did reluctantly follow their advice and recertify Iran’s compliance in that meeting, his recent speech at the UN General Assembly indicates that the United States is closer than ever to abandoning the deal. Speaking in New York on Sept. 19, Trump said, “Frankly, that deal [the JCPOA] is an embarrassment to the United States, and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it — believe me.”
There are now rising concerns, especially in Tehran, that the United States plans to very slyly push Iran into abandoning the JCPOA. On Sept. 5, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that should Trump decide not to certify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal, it would not constitute a US withdrawal from the accord.
