Iran: Offer to Replace Nuclear Deal with ‘Trump Deal’ Is ‘Strange’

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rejected on Tuesday the idea of a “Trump deal” to replace the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 countries – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. The US pulled out of the JCPOA in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran that the nuclear deal had lifted. Rouhani called the proposal for a new deal a “strange” offer and urged the US to return to the JCPOA. The idea that a “Trump deal” could replace the 2015 nuclear deal has been encouraged by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has praised Trump as a great dealmaker, and Trump, himself, has said he agrees with Johnson. Iran, responding to US sanctions, has stopped complying with the nuclear deal’s uranium enrichment limits. The Islamic Republic says it wants to keep the JCPOA but will not do so if it does not receive the economic benefits promised in the deal. On Tuesday, the UK, France and Germany activated a dispute mechanism that could result in the reimposition of UN sanctions – a step that Iran termed a “strategic mistake.”