{"id":167307,"date":"2026-06-19T03:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/167307\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T03:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:01:35","slug":"the-interim-us-iran-deal-leaves-the-fate-of-tehrans-nuclear-program-still-to-be-negotiated-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/167307\/","title":{"rendered":"The interim US-Iran deal leaves the fate of Tehran’s nuclear program still to be negotiated"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 The interim deal between the United States and Iran<\/a> is supposed to usher in a two-month period that would address the most divisive issue between the longtime adversaries \u2014 Tehran’s nuclear program.<\/p>\n

Preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear bomb is a key reason that President Donald Trump said he launched the war alongside Israel in February, but the tentative agreement he has trumpeted<\/a> leaves little runway to negotiate the long-running sticking point. The previous nuclear pact between Iran and world powers, from which Trump pulled the U.S.<\/a> in his first term, took many months to negotiate.<\/p>\n

Under terms of the initial deal<\/a>, Iran would immediately take steps to reopen the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> to global oil shipments and would be allowed to sell its oil without restrictions, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The accord, due to be officially signed<\/a> Friday in Switzerland, also envisions Iran receiving at least $300 billion to rebuild after the war and says the U.S. would work to end all American and U.N. sanctions imposed on Tehran. That is if a final agreement addressing Iran\u2019s nuclear program<\/a> is reached after the opening of a 60-day period for talks. The draft says the sides agreed to resolve \u201cthe disposition\u201d of Iran’s highly enriched uranium during that period.<\/p>\n

Still, there is deep skepticism among both Republican<\/a> and Democratic lawmakers, pro-Israel advocates and Israel itself<\/a> that the deal is realistic, workable or would have any effect on subsequent nuclear talks<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy skepticism is Iran itself. What would a good deal look like? No enrichment. And we\u2019ll see if we can get there,\u201d Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close Trump ally and longtime Iran hawk, said Tuesday. \u201cBut whether or not we can get phase 2, I don\u2019t know.\u201d <\/p>\n

A nuclear deal takes commitment to the details<\/p>\n

David Schenker, director of the Arab Politics Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said \u201cthis administration has proven that it has a hard time keeping its attention on these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schenker, who served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs in the first Trump administration, questioned whether the current administration would have the wherewithal to reach a nuclear deal even if the agreement is signed Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the kind of thing that requires dogged attention, attention to detail and numerous technical experts involved,\u201d he said. \u201cTrump loses his attention, moves on, and so does the administration. It\u2019s like they don\u2019t understand Iran\u2019s strategy. They didn\u2019t get it the first time, or the second.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republican administration has maintained its confidence. Trump said Wednesday that Iran would work with the U.S. to turn over its highly enriched uranium believed to be in largely inaccessible underground facilities<\/a> that the U.S. bombed in June 2025.<\/p>\n

Because of that, Trump insisted it did not need to be done quickly and that the U.S. has \u201ccameras on every inch of it\u201d in the meantime.<\/p>\n

If Iran tries to move it, the U.S. will attack and “they\u2019ll be gone. And they know that,\u201d Trump said at a closing news conference at the Group of Seven summit<\/a> in France.<\/p>\n

There is a general agreement on what to do to \u201cdownblend\u201d the uranium that is buried in the rubble of the bombed facilities, but details of who would excavate the material, who would dilute it and where the resulting material would go remain to be negotiated.<\/p>\n

Asked how the deal ensures that Iran is permanently prevented from getting a nuclear weapon, Trump responded, \u201cIf it\u2019s not permanently, we will bomb them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The draft deal says \u201cthe minimum methodology\u201d would be dilution of the material on site under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear agency. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful.<\/p>\n

It took over a year and a half to get the previous nuclear deal<\/p>\n

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, took more than 18 months to negotiate, starting with secret talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in Oman at the end of Democratic President Barack Obama\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

They required dozens of direct high-level interventions from Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, not to mention a team of dozens of technical experts traveling to Europe and elsewhere before the conclusion of the negotiations in Vienna.<\/p>\n

Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 before most of its more contentious concessions had come into effect, and there is no indication now that Iran is willing to offer much more.<\/p>\n

The JCPOA relied on very technical language and understandings, including limits on uranium enrichment, advanced centrifuges and heavy water production. In exchange, Iran was granted significant sanctions relief, amounting to billions of dollars. <\/p>\n

As unhappy as critics were about the JCPOA \u2014 Trump called it the \u201cworst deal ever negotiated,\u201d while all Republicans and a number of prominent Democrats voted against it \u2014 all sides acknowledge it took more than 18 months to get to an even imperfect agreement. <\/p>\n

Republicans say Congress must approve any deal<\/p>\n

Republicans say any nuclear deal with Iran should be brought to Congress, as required by law. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has said he \u201cwould certainly anticipate that\u201d the Senate will get the final say.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he had little confidence Iran would abide by any agreement.<\/p>\n

But Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., one of a handful of senators who has spoken to Vance about the agreement, said the shortened timeline could be an advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran\u2019s modus operandi is to negotiate for the purpose of delaying, so they can rearm themselves,\u201d Marshall said Tuesday. \u201cI think the president has to give them some type of a finite amount of time, or there\u2019s going to be consequences. So I think it can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., noted that what could help Trump\u2019s negotiators to hammer out a nuclear agreement in such a truncated timeline is that there is \u201ca base” to work from following the Obama-era talks.<\/p>\n

Still, the JCPOA “took years to put together. You had allies and even adversaries \u2014 China and Russia \u2014 around the table, you had the IAEA at the table, the Obama chief negotiator had a Nobel Prize in physics, Ernie Moniz,\u201d Kaine said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that either Jared Kushner or Steve Witkoff have a Nobel Prize. So it\u2019s going to be hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump envoys Witkoff and Kushner, neither of whom had any prior experience in nuclear negotiations, made numerous but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement under Omani mediation during the first months of Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n

There also is uncertainty about other issues besides nuclear that have been of concern to Arab countries, Israel, Europe and the United States. Issues such as Iran\u2019s ballistic missile program, its support for militant proxies in the region or repression of its own people do not appear in the interim agreement.<\/p>\n

It includes major concessions, such as Iran selling its oil freely, beyond the terms of the JCPOA. Only at the conclusion of the overall deal in 2015 were sanctions on Iran\u2019s oil lifted.<\/p>\n

\u201cA deal is better than more fighting, but the war America and Israel prosecuted against Iran has fallen short of achieving its stated objectives,\u201d said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. \u201cThis agreement is mostly about cleaning up an unnecessary mess and putting the best face on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim and Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2013 The interim deal between the United States and Iran is supposed to usher in a two-month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[2019,51463,41238,38,51465,51462,34,2018,1096,17196,51466,1914,51464,2017,69,1913,771,82],"class_list":["post-167307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tehran","tag-barack-obama","tag-brian-katulis","tag-david-schenker","tag-donald-trump","tag-ernest-moniz","tag-ernie-moniz","tag-iran","tag-jared-kushner","tag-jd-vance","tag-john-kennedy","tag-john-kerry","tag-lindsey-graham","tag-roger-marshall","tag-steve-witkoff","tag-tehran","tag-tim-kaine","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116774547133412402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}