Public sentiment regarding the Iran-U.S. nuclear negotiations is predominantly skeptical, characterized by frustration over perceived double standards in international nuclear policies and distrust towards the intentions of both governments. Commentators express concerns about both the effectiveness of the potential agreements and the implications of allowing Iran to enrich uranium, recalling historical grievances that have further complicated diplomatic relations. While there are voices advocating for diplomacy, the overall tone reflects significant disillusionment with past actions and a belief that successful negotiation may be unlikely.

Iran

United States

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Standard Iran tactics. 

“We can’t talk until X does Y first.”

“We need to agree on location.”

“We need guarantees from [random countries] before we talk.”

Repeat endlessly. Meanwhile they’ll keep doing what they’re doing.

Rich-Marzipan1647

The delay tactic worked so well for them the first time

Ixziga

Iran needs more time to finish their first batch of nukes.  They're going back to the delay, delay, delay tactic.  They're not interested in negotiating.  They just issued a fatwa against Trump, Netanyahu and anyone else who opposes the Islamic Republic.

The-M0untain

Nomad_moose

dakotanorth8

AnteaterPositive6939

More like still need more time to see how much those bombs really fucked up their nuke plans.

dbula

Oh well, they’re being watched 24/7 and if they try and do anything they’ll eat another set of tomahawks and bunker busters. Hilarious how people think the Israelis and Americans are just gonna let them dig up fordow and Natanz without hitting them. If anything they’re making it easier to bomb.

renge-refurion

Yes probably 6-9 months, enough time to build a bomb

sullyball008

For the ayatollah to die of natural causes?

[deleted]

In 2016 when trump pulled out of the Obama Iran deal, one of the clauses said if America pulls out of the deal Iran can enrich up to 60%. Biden fails to renegotiate the deal, trump takes office starts negotiating and then is pressured by israel Iran must have zero enrichment something everyone in dc knows Iran will not accept, Israel bombs them, trump sees this and says it was actually all his idea (it wasn’t he just saw it look cool on fox) decides he’ll also bomb their nuclear capabilities, negotiates a ceasefire, and now we’re back to renegotiating a deal we should have never have pulled out of in the first place. If this doesn’t sound right let me know, I’d be happy to discuss the reality of the situation

Traditional_Set8625

Iran can decide not to resume in which case it will open itself for future attack from Israel and maybe US again.

macross1984

I agree with the author that purely from the standpoint of civilian nuclear, there’s little sense in Iran insisting on keeping enrichment capacity. The costs of their civilian nuclear program have been huge and the civilian benefit has been minimal.

But setting aside the civilian use, I don’t really understand the author’s argument on why Iran would agree to give up their latent nuclear deterrent. This paragraph in particular was hard for me to understand:

&gt; Israeli bombing of the sites that support weaponization has likely delayed Iran’s ability to produce nuclear warheads to be mated to missiles, although it is uncertain by how much. A few crude bombs could be built without further enrichment to 90 percent by using the less-effective 60 percent enriched material, if any of it survived the Israeli and American attacks. But Iran has had the capability to sprint to a few bombs, which could be employed in a one-time attack or as a terrorist weapon, for perhaps two decades. It hasn’t done so and likely will not now, especially since it is in the crosshairs of and virtually defenseless against Israeli and American air attacks and deeply infiltrated by Israel intelligence services. We believe Iran was hedging its nuclear bets all along to amass a sufficiently large stockpile of bomb-grade uranium for missile-deliverable nuclear warheads to serve as a deterrent against Israel. Such a nuclear deterrent has been set back by many years.

The author seems to be downplaying the value of Iran’s latent nuclear deterrent, but I’m confused by the assertion that the nuclear warhead deterrent has been set back by “many years” despite starting the paragraph by acknowledging that we don’t know how much the strikes have set them back in their ability to make warheads. 

The author also acknowledges elsewhere that Iran may have retained its stockpile of 60% enriched uranium. And — to his credit since so many authors don’t seem to understand this — he also discusses how the remaining steps to the bomb (enriching 60-&gt;90, uranium conversion, weaponization research) don’t require massive infrastructure like Fordow and Natanz, but can be done in small hidden facilities and workshops. 

So in what way have they been set back many years? Best I can tell, the author is taking it as a given that Iran won’t race for a bomb while it’s in a vulnerable state like it is now. I’m not sure why they are so confident in that. 

Yes, the US and Israeli can inflict a lot of pain on Iran if they rush towards a bomb, but we can’t stop them. Airstrikes are very effective against massive facilities like Natanz and Fordow with thousands of centrifuges bolted to the ground, but much less effective when the target is 10,000 scientists spread out in small workshops and classrooms across the entire country. 

Maybe being in a vulnerable state like Iran is now, with your enemies bragging about how dominant their forces are, is exactly the time that you become willing to endure a few years of pain to get a nuclear weapon. 

________

The biggest hurdle I see in getting Iran to agree to zero enrichment is establishing the trust that would require. Such a deal would inevitably also require destroying or moving all of its highly enriched uranium to a third country, stopping production of new centrifuges and basically dismantling any remaining enrichment infrastructure. What happens if the very next day after they do that, Donald Trump (again) unilaterally rips up the nuclear deal and says “get punk’d idiots, sanctions are back on until you agree to more conditions.” Iran will have set itself back years from a nuclear deterrent in exchange for something the US and Israel can reverse at a moment’s notice. 

Between the US withdrawal and the Israeli surprise attack 2 days before negotiations were set to take place, Iran has little reason to trust the US and Israel would act in good faith. Retaining the capacity to enrich (capped to 3.67%) seems essential to any deal they might agree to, simply as a protection against another US withdrawal from the agreement. 

_____

Last thing I wanted to say about this article is that I don’t think they make any argument for why the US should insist on zero-enrichment. The author seems to acknowledge that Iran has been very hesitant to actually go nuclear and has mainly used the nuclear program as a latent deterrent, so what’s the harm in letting them keep enrichment up to 3.67%, assuming we have strict monitoring in place like the IAEA’s additional protocol? This is what Iran opened negotiations with back in April when speaking to the US envoy.

oskanta

ttown2011

I really can't see why Iran would. The US and Israel don't seem to want to invade, I can't imagine that making a deal with the US seems credible... So you need a regime backstop which is a nuke, just need to test one.

Neowarcloud

If they want to maintain any semblance of sovereignty, they absolutely should not agree to that lol

dpavlicko

From a realpolitik pov, I don't know why they would do that. Trump randomly thrashed the prior deal that they were in compliance with. Russia and China won't shield them if Trump decides to do a regime change....They could have sold them a nuclear warhead ages ago for permanent deterrence as well. The fact that Kim Dynasty sits so comfortably and Ukraine/Iraq was invaded on lies doesn't really leave a good reason for them to recommit.

fuggitdude22

It's bizarre watching the internet argue that Iran should have nukes

DrippingPickle

They can enrich the 5% or whatever needed for civilian programmes. Enriching to 60% was just reckless. I'm not saying I endorse the attacks on Iran, but they were playing with fire and they knew it.

polemism

Writing at the *Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists* website, Hoover Institution Research Fellow [Abbas Milani](https://www.hoover.org/profiles/abbas-milani) and Stanford emeritus professor of management science and engineering Siegfried S. Hecker argue that, “following the extensive Israeli bombing of Iran’s nuclear complex, supplemented by American attacks on the better-protected Iranian sites, the time has come for Iran’s leaders to reconsider their past intransigent, deceptive posture and instead pursue a nuclear power program that will benefit the Iranian people.” Milani, a leading authority on Iranian politics, and Hecker, a former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, review key historical moments that led to the current standoff over Iran’s nuclear program. Turning to the role of US policy, the authors conclude, “It is now important for President Trump to get Israel to stop the bombing and follow through with Iran to consummate a deal that will benefit the people of Iran and take a big step toward peace in the region.”

HooverInstitution

There was a deal. Trump ended it. F off Maga loons.

Hertje73

There’s so much talk about the Iranian nuclear programme being delayed for x period of time. Guys. *Guys*. More time has elapsed since Trump backed out of the deal than it took to design and deploy two different nuclear weapon designs in WWII. If Iran genuinely wanted nukes as much as people claim, they’d have them. They already have the deployment mechanisms. 

It is absurdly clear they didn’t want to actually take that last step and create the bomb a couple months ago. That’s been the IC’s opinion for years, too. I’m old enough to remember the “Iraq has WMDs” talk in 2023; this is the exact same song and dance. The only real difference is the intended scale of involvement on the ground.

PausedForVolatility

Yes yes we are the most righteous people because we are in the Bible also yes we also have nuke because we are the chosen one - israel

If not for USA and aipac, Israel will be gone in no time. Also don't talk about Gaza, because there is no war in Gaza strip.

Every_West_3890

It’s too bad the citizens, the true Iranians, couldn’t use the Israeli strike to enact regime change. Hopefully in our lifetime there will be a free and prosperous Iran.

ChaLenCe

We're getting to the point where the international community has to ask whether the current Iranian regime should be allowed to have nuclear power in general.

Cultural-Flow7185

Religious fanatics and the IRGC are in control there will be no deal until they are gone.

MeatPiston

A large part seemed to be simply because Obama negotiated it with a sprinkling of pressure from War Hawks who seem to have gotten what they wanted.

Irishfafnir

YogurtclosetOwn4786

There’s no pussyfooting around this - Trump’s failure to abide by the JCPOA is what got us here. Iran got their foreign assets, we got non-proliferation, that was the deal. Ripping that up just to go back to “extreme sanction” has done zero for the world and now we’re in this mess either way. This is solely on the Trump administrations.

apb2718

I’m 80% convinced that Trump is doing this because he was disgusted by his birthday parade and terrified by the amount of Americans showing up at rallies and protests against him.

He can’t get any legislation past, his lickspittle sycophants in his cabinet are too incompetent and too scared to tell him the truth, the DOJ is getting buried in an avalanche of court cases against him, his government and his allies. ICE morale is also down with many people leaning and the organization forced to hire bounty hunters to make up the losses.

To make matters worse he’s sick and is exhausted both mentally and physically. His legacy is slipping away from him and he has no respect with the other G7 nations or world. 

His flash and showmanship is keeping cult in line for now but the cracks are showing and then censorship of the woke right media empire is unable to keep up with Trump and friends flooding the zone with failure after failure.

It’s too bad Democrats don’t have a united leader or plan to capitalize on Trumps weakness. 

Hopefully Gavin Newsom can figure something out.

therosx

There were (at least) three big problems with the JCPOA:

\-it unfroze 100B in Iranian assets that allowed Iran to fund even more terrorism.   Even though there were restrictions on how the money could be spent, money is fungible so those restrictions were essentially meaningless.

\-Sunset provisions meant that, at best, the agreement would merely delay, not end Iran’s nuclear development program.

\-certain inspections required notification periods, which led to delays, which kinda defeats the purpose of inspections.

carneylansford

beingafunkynote

A black man was going to get credit for it.

Bobinct

It was a peace deal, Trump tore it up because he's an easily led man baby

No-Upstairs-7001

According to Trump Iran wasn’t abiding by the treaty so he ended it.

RocketButters

&gt;The U.S. and many European nations lifted oil and financial sanctions and released about $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets.

Obama used stuxnet and $100B to get uranium and centrifuges out of Iran

Trump chose sanctions

Biden chose neither

Here we are.  Thankfully with the whole program in the dust. 

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-iran-united-states-united-nations-aa8f38fa3bf7de3c09a469ec91664a3c

lqIpI

One reason was it was believed Iran was still working on acquiring nukes and wasn't living up to the agreement. Iirc the US had to give advanced warning of an inspection etc.

Another reason is that Iran used the money Obama gave them to arm and support Hamas.

Those in favour of the deal said the deal was working and Iran was many years away from getting nukes.

And they said it was Iran's own money Obama gave back to them.

Tiny_Rub_8782

AlpineSK

nickburrows8398

pretty sure israel and the USA pulled out of the nuclear talks by hammering the nuclear facilities and target assassinations of key figures. 

MAYBE JUST MAYBE

yamers

ThrowAwayGarbage82

"This war would not have started if I was President."


Art of the deal.

Krazynewf709

https://preview.redd.it/akzkmiqrvp6f1.jpeg?width=1024&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=9526407d45b71c8180a32faa8a309ec774e66716

hospitallers

![gif](giphy|BcMJvmwkmbyWpKkBj3|downsized)

Oh my…

Unusual_Specialist

spartanantler

Ya, they're having a very different conversation now.

CoffeeExtraCream

Thanks, Israel. How’s Bibi’s corruption trial going?

Built-in-Light

Taxjag

Successful-Hour3027

It just keeps getting better and better. So much winning. /s  😒

Born-Golf-4855

Strenue

Well, so what they were negotiating about?

In other words, it outlines the same deal Trump tore up in 2018 for Netanyahu.   

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” - Ernest Benn

ahenobarbus_horse

I’m almost certain the deal Trump tore up the first time around did not allow for enrichment beyond a particular industrial/medical level.

Mudder1310

We’re basically going to end up with the JCPOA, but with having allowed Iran to further mature their nuclear plan and having damaged the US’s reputation by unilaterally pulling out of a deal we spearheaded.

On the face of things that’s bad enough, but Trump/MAGA media are going to hype such a deal (if it happens) as though it’s the best thing ever… just the continuous reality distortion field around Trump. 

Feels like the Grimes episode of the Simpsons. Just we’re all Grimes and Trump is Homer 😒

Scaryclouds

snokegsxr

BiffChildFromBangor

After all this time, when Trump cancelled the first Iran deal just because Obama negotiated it... We'll have gone 8+ years without a deal, all to end up with one that's probably not even as good as the original deal.

All because Trump is stupid and self centered.  MASSIVE world policy decided based on a toddler mentality.  And yet his toddler mentality supporters love it.

BigMax

Last week wasn’t it “there’s no way we are going to allow you to enrich uranium” ? I mean, I’m so lost

laxfreeze

So we pulled out of a deal that would block iran from enriching *any* uranium and are now negotiating a deal that would allow them to enrich *some* uranium.


Is this the art of the deal?

bard329

Sounds a lot like the Obama deal that trump shit all over. I’m guessing this will be a better deal …. for Iran.

_jump_yossarian

Apparently Trump changed his mind again:

[Trump claims U.S. won't let Iran enrich uranium under nuclear deal](https://www.axios.com/2025/06/02/iran-nuclear-deal-plan-uranium-enrich)

&gt;Trump's claim contradicts the proposal his envoy Steve Witkoff made to Iran on Saturday, the details of which were reported by Axios on Monday.

_Machine_Gun

This Axios article seems to have left out critical details.  The deal allows Iran to enrich uranium to the levels needed for nuclear reactors (less than 5%), it does not allow them to enrich to the levels needed to make nuclear weapons (\~90%)

Goldie_Wilson_

onesole

OrbAndSceptre

It's funny to see that Obama was such a good negotiator that the only think the Orangenfuhrer could achieve is to copy/paste his homework.

Mazon_Del

lol.. what? That’s the worsts deal for US anyone could have negotiated it. Of course idiot Trump did it.

SEQLAR

Ukraine doesn’t trust Trump. Trump trusts Russia, Iran, and North Korea. This timeline sucks.

rellsell

apeelvis

So, back to the deal Trump tore off, or is it a worse deal?

Super-Admiral

CasualObserverNine

So Trump took a bribe. That’s how all his “negotiations” end.

we_are_sex_bobomb

Something regarding taco not really understanding what he’s actually negotiating. 

There’s a reason why taco isn’t on masterclass for ‘art of the deal’

He has no idea what the fuck he is doing

sineplussquare

So we finally came full circle. Lol what a joke.

yellowstone727

tonyislost

So did President Obama’s deal. All Trump is doing is manufacturing problems, breaking old agreements because they were his predecessors successes and not his. FLOTUS will claim victory after victory was already gained, though it’s at a loss. Laziest President ever.

spartan815

They've been enriching for a decade. It's about what level of enrichment.

Past-Community-3871

Well folks. I guess this was the best deal possible.

locke1313

MagicSPA

They signed the NPT. They have the right to enrich.  You know who hasn’t signed - Israel.

Indiana-Irishman

The art of the bad deal. Thanks Republicans and non voters. You really owned the libs with this one.

RandomTez

CommercialBox4175

It was always a real red line for Iran, for Israel too, but just a negotiating position for the US

kindagoodatthis

Jesus, they would of smoked Biden for even suggesting such a thing

inappropriate_pet

So is he just going to proposal all of the terms from Obamas nuclear deal with Iran that he shut down in 2017?

Reading the article, it's very similar to the deal he pulled out of during his first term, except it allows Iran to enrich a
 certain amount of uranium. So basically a shittier deal.

Klewless1

Empty_Put_1542

So we’re back to where we were 8+ years ago? Wow some masterful negotiation there.

FerragudoFred

Why don’t we just sell them pre-enriched uranium and make $$$$$$ ?

Flynn_lives

boneboy247

so...we're back to where we were when Trump blew up the previous deal?

omghorussaveusall

ProfessorWild563

So when a nuke comes out of the Middle East and detonates in the US, we’ll have this to verify responsibility

ptahbaphomet

Maybe Iran doesn’t get 30 nukes, maybe they just get two nukes…

cinciNattyLight

feelingbutter

Iran will continue to develop their bomb in secret until they either test under ground or well you know...

ararezaee

WASNT THIS THE SAME DEAL OBAMA NEGOTIATED LMAO

queeso

Iran has indicated a willingness to engage in direct nuclear talks with the U.S. under favorable conditions.

Iran-U.S. Nuclear Negotiations

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