{"id":17264,"date":"2026-04-19T15:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/17264\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T15:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:34:22","slug":"europe-fears-superficial-deal-by-inexperienced-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/17264\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe Fears ‘Superficial Deal’ By Inexperienced US"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

European allies fear an inexperienced U.S. negotiating team is pushing for a swift,
headline-grabbing framework deal with Iran that could entrench rather than resolve deeper problems, diplomats with past experience dealing with Tehran<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

They worry Washington, eager to claim a diplomatic win for President Donald Trump, could lock in a superficial agreement on Iran\u2019s nuclear programme and sanctions relief, then struggle through months or years of technically complex follow-on talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concern isn\u2019t that there won\u2019t be an agreement,\u201d said a senior European diplomat, one of eight who spoke to Reuters who have previously worked on the nuclear file or continue to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that there will be a bad initial agreement that creates endless downstream problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to a series of questions from Reuters, ranging from negotiating style and team to objectives and the potential dangers of a quick deal, the White House rejected the criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump has a proven track record of achieving good deals on behalf of the United States and the American people, and he will only accept one that puts America first,\u201d spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.<\/p>\n

Diplomats from France, Britain and Germany \u2014 which began negotiating with Iran in 2003 \u2014 say they have been sidelined.\u00a0 From 2013 to 2015, the three worked with the United States to secure a deal on curbing Iran\u2019s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.<\/p>\n

Trump withdrew from the accord \u2013 the signature foreign policy agreement of his predecessor Barack Obama \u2013 in 2018, during his first term, calling it \u201chorribly one-sided\u201d.<\/p>\n

After 40 days of airstrikes, U.S. and Iranian negotiators opened talks in Islamabad earlier this month, again focused on the familiar trade-off of nuclear restrictions for economic
relief. There were some signs in the Pakistani capital on Sunday of preparations for a resumption of face-to-face negotiations.<\/p>\n

Diplomats say deep mistrust<\/a> and sharply different negotiating styles raise the risk of a fragile framework neither side can sustain politically.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took us 12 years and immense technical work,\u201d said Federica Mogherini, who coordinated the talks from 2013 to 2015.\u201dDoes anyone seriously think this can be done in 21 hours?\u201d<\/p>\n

The diplomats said a skeletal agreement may be achievable, built around a nuclear package and an economic package. But they warned the nuclear component remained by far the most contentious.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Americans think you agree on three or four points in a five-page document and that\u2019s it, but on the nuclear file, every clause opens the door to a dozen more disputes,\u201d a second European diplomat said.<\/p>\n

Talks are focusing on Iran\u2019s stockpile of roughly 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60%, material that could be used for several nuclear weapons if further enriched.<\/p>\n

The favoured option is \u201cdownblending\u201d inside Iran under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision. Another is a hybrid approach, with some material shipped abroad.<\/p>\n

Turkey and France have been mentioned as possible destinations. Shipping material to the United States would be politically difficult for Iran, while Russia is unattractive to
Washington, two of the diplomats said.<\/p>\n

Even those options would require lengthy negotiations over recovering material possibly buried by airstrikes, verifying quantities and transporting it securely.\u00a0\u00a0Iran has also floated storing material abroad for a fixed period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever happens now is only a starting point,\u201d said a Western diplomat previously involved in nuclear talks. \u201cThat\u2019s why the 2015 JCPOA ran to 160 pages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond stockpiles lies the deeper dispute over Iran\u2019s right to enrich uranium at all. Trump has publicly pushed for zero enrichment, while Iran insists it has the right to enrich
uranium for civilian purposes and denies seeking a bomb.<\/p>\n

One possible compromise would be a temporary moratorium followed by resumption at very low levels under strict conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European allies fear an inexperienced U.S. negotiating team is pushing for a swift,headline-grabbing framework deal with Iran that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12881,12861,4,5809,12882,305,577,12883,291],"class_list":{"0":"post-17264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-europe","8":"tag-downblending","9":"tag-enriched-uranium","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-homeslider","12":"tag-inexperienced-us-team","13":"tag-jcpoa","14":"tag-nuclear-weapons","15":"tag-shipping-abroad","16":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}