Prateek Tanmay
Former US President Barack Obama has said that any potential deal to end the conflict between America and Iran will not mark a “significant improvement” over the accord his administration negotiated 11 years ago.
Speaking on ABC News‘ talk show “This Week,” Obama suggested that it would be better to negotiate an agreement that doesn’t fulfil all the requirements presented by Washington so that an outright war can be avoided.
Contemporary peace efforts and context
Obama’s remarks come at a time when the US and Iran are closing in on a potential peace agreement to end the over three-month-old conflict that could also reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump has said his administration is going to sign a deal with Iran on Sunday.
Referring to 2015’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement that Trump abandoned during his first term, Obama said, “It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly different or a significant improvement from the deal that we had in the first place,” ABC News reported.
The former president said the nuclear deal signed with Iran during his tenure “worked for a long stretch of time before…the United States pulled out of it.”
Origins of the current West Asia war
The war in West Asia ignited after US-Israeli military launched strikes against Iran in February and the Islamic Republic retaliated by attacking US bases in the Gulf region, including countries like UAE, Oman, Jordan, Kuwait among others.
Trump’s rebuttal and strategic view
President Trump, in a post on Truth Social earlier, had said that Obama’s JCPOA agreement would have led Iran to nuclear weapons before his administration withdrew from the erstwhile nuclear deal.
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“Obama’s deal with Iran, the JCPOA, was an easy, beautiful, smooth road to a nuclear weapon, which Iran would have had six years ago, and would have used long before now ,” the Republican leader said.
Trump further said: “My Agreement with Iran is the exact opposite…Iran no longer wants a nuclear weapon, nor will they have one, either through purchase, development, or any other form of procurement.”
Advocacy for diplomatic statesmanship
Obama said the troubled progress of a new US-Iran nuclear deal is a clear indicator that Washington cannot “just bully our way or bomb our way to solutions,” instead of getting involved in extensive statesmanship.
“You’d think we would have learned that lesson by now,” the Democratic leader added.
