World
How Trump’s 14-point Iran deal compares with Obama’s 160-page nuclear agreement
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump has insisted that the deal he has reached with Iran is superior to the one that President Barack Obama sealed in 2015, while Trump’s critics say at this point he has gotten much less and given up much more to Tehran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government and US Jewish leaders aggressively opposed the 2015 deal, calling it a danger to Israel. This time, the memorandum of understanding that the US and Iran inked this week has likewise caused significant concern in Israel, and sparked condemnations across the political spectrum, but Netanyahu has so far refrained from criticizing it publicly.
Here is how the two agreements compare:
What each deal is — and isn’t
They are very different. The memorandum of understanding that Trump signed with Iran is not a final agreement but a one-and-a-half-page, 14-point framework negotiated on and off over a period of weeks.
It has launched a 60-day negotiation period to seek a full settlement of the nearly four-month war, with many hurdles yet to overcome on issues that include Iran’s nuclear program, sanctions relief and the future of the Strait of Hormuz.
The first round of those talks, planned to begin on Friday, was called off, though US Vice President JD Vance said he may travel soon to Switzerland, where they are set to take place.
Obama’s pact was a finished, detailed document titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that extended to more than 160 pages. It was narrowly focused on restricting Iran’s nuclear activities, with strict benchmarks. Trump, who condemned the Obama-era deal as “horrible,” scrapped it in 2018 with the urging of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump’s approach has been bilateral, between the US and Iran. Obama brought China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and the European Union into negotiations that lasted about two years.
Nuclear program
Iran denies seeking nuclear arms, but has enriched uranium to levels with no peaceful application and obstructed international inspectors from its sites.
Both Obama’s and Trump’s deals involve a written commitment by Iran never to seek a nuclear weapon. Trump — who declared the nuclear threat his main reason for going to war — has insisted, incorrectly, that Tehran had never made such a commitment before.
Obama’s deal placed tight limits on Iran’s efforts to produce weapons-grade uranium, aimed at extending the “breakout” time it would need to produce a bomb. The US government said Tehran had complied until Trump withdrew from the JCPOA.
Trump’s interim deal outlines only a general path toward curbing Iran’s nuclear activities, with no specific commitments from Tehran other than to discuss nuclear issues in the 60-day window.
It suggests Iran’s willingness to resolve a dispute over its near-bomb-grade uranium stockpile, saying the sides “agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpiled enriched material,” including the possibility of doing so by “down blending” onsite under supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, but leaves the particulars of that decision for a final deal.
The JCPOA involved extensive international inspection, but the MOU does not call for any future reinstatement of that process.
Much of the criticism of Obama’s deal was due to its “sunset clause” that would have phased out nuclear restrictions at the 10-year mark.
In a fiery 2017 UN speech against the deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran would be free by the decade’s end to enrich uranium “on an industrial scale,” and that “fixing the deal means getting rid of the sunset clause.”
When the 2015 deal reached the decade point last year, its remaining Western parties — France, Germany and Britain — triggered the reimposition of a UN arms embargo and other sanctions on Iran, accusing the Islamic Republic of having failed to abide by the agreement.
Sanctions and frozen assets
Both deals involve sanctions relief and the unfreezing of assets — which Iran is now even more anxious to receive to boost its crippled economy — but in very different ways.
Obama eased some sanctions early on, but only after a comprehensive settlement was signed, and then phased in further relief based on verified steps by Iran.
Trump’s memorandum front-loads initial relief, including immediate US waivers for Iran to export oil, while leaving a final package to be negotiated later.
It also opens the door to releasing billions of dollars in frozen funds and is unclear about when that might happen.
Another provision calls for the US and Middle East allies to set up a $300 billion fund for Iran for economic development, but is vague about the conditions and timetable.
This has drawn criticism from Iran hawks within Trump’s Republican Party that he is making too many concessions.
Trump has berated Obama for years over the Democratic president’s return to Tehran of $1.7 billion in proceeds from arms sales frozen since 1981.
But Trump, who has made clear his disdain for any comparison between his deal and Obama’s, now stands to provide Iran with many times more funds.
Opening the Strait of Hormuz
The JCPOA dealt only with nuclear issues, a deliberate choice by the Obama administration, which calculated that bundling in other regional concerns would make a final deal impossible.
The MOU, however, is the diplomatic starting point for permanently ending a war that Trump launched with Israel on February 28 and which has sent shockwaves across the world economy. Two of the main goals of the war were eliminating Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The latter is not referenced in the MOU, and Trump now says Iran should be able to keep some missiles.
One of the deal’s main thrusts is an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil-shipping channel which Iran effectively closed at the outset of the war. Iran has insisted it retain a management role over the strait that it lacked pre-war, and that could be a sticking point in negotiations.
