Let’s Make a Nuclear Deal with Iran

The Council on International Policy’s Navid Hassibi writes about the importance of striking a nuclear deal with Iran in The National Interest.

Photo by U.S. Department of State/Eric Bridiers – Flickr

[opinion/analysis] While the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has triggered parallel efforts and possible tacit cooperation between the United States and Iran to address this common threat, Washington and Tehran have been concurrently working to prepare for a new phase of negotiations to reach an agreement on the latter’s nuclear program. As nuclear talks are slated to resume on September 18 in New York ahead of the annual UN General Assembly, the United States and Iran have already met bilaterally on two separate occasions since extending the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) in late July, indicating their respective interest of negotiating a comprehensive agreement by the extended November 24 deadline. Indeed, now is the time to finally resolve the longstanding nuclear dispute with Iran. As the world faces major international crises, such as the rise of ISIL, the events in eastern Ukraine and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the relationship that was once marked by brinksmanship is now among the most stable and contained international issues facing both Washington and Tehran, at least until the extended November deadline. The United States, the other members of the so-called P5+1 and Iran must come to terms on a comprehensive agreement in the coming months as only a marginal chance exists for the JPOA to be extended once more, and presumably only if significant headway is made in the upcoming rounds. If the JPOA is allowed to expire without a comprehensive agreement replacing it, the United States and Iran could find themselves again on the brink of conflict, perhaps not in the near term, as the international community confronts ISIL, but potentially in the medium-to-long term.

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