Iran’s nuclear deal and the US presidential election
The deal’s fate depends on the outcome of US elections, not the UN.
This week, the joint commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — that is, the remaining parties to the Iran nuclear deal (Iran, the European Union, Russia and China) — agreed that the United States could not initiate "snapback" sanctions on Iran because the Trump administration withdrew from the deal in May 2018.
The decision of the JCPOA signatories as well as the UN Security Council was a rebuke to US diplomacy on Iran.
With regard to the nuclear deal, not much has actually changed. Iran remains under brutal US sanctions, and the cat-and-mouse games between Iran and nuclear inspectors, who worry about access to the information about the status of Iran’s nuclear program, will probably continue.
What has changed, and not for the better, is that the Western rift on the nuclear deal means that next month Iran can buy weapons on the international arms market.
