April 12, 2025
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University and a former spokesman for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the West, said he did not believe that if talks this weekend failed to produce such a result that the immediate “alternative would be war.”
Mousavian agreed, saying both sides will be using the indirect talks as an opportunity to “assess each other and the intentions of the other side.”
April 11, 2025
“Mr. Khamenei’s turnaround demonstrates his long-held core principle that ‘preserving the regime is the most necessary of the necessities,’” said Hossein Mousavian, a former diplomat who served on Iran’s nuclear negotiating team on a 2015 deal and is now a visiting fellow at Princeton University.
Mr. Mousavian, the former nuclear negotiator, said Iran would never agree to demands by Washington and Israel to completely dismantle its nuclear program, adding that such a demand would be a “deal breaker.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/world/middleeast/us-iran-talks-trump-khamenei.html
April 11, 2025
Iranian negotiators are probably seeking a limited agreement with the United States that can be finalized quickly, according to Hossein Mousavian, a former Iranian ambassador who served on the country’s nuclear negotiating team.
“If Trump asks for dismantlement” of Iran’s entire nuclear program, “there is no chance. It’s deal killer,” he said. Netanyahu’s suggestion of a “Libya-style deal,” in which the late Moammar Gaddafi voluntarily gave up a nascent nuclear weapons program in 2003 after the United States threatened to destroy it, he and others suggested, was far beyond the bounds of what Iran would accept.
But if U.S. negotiators are only looking to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, impose greater transparency and set limits on enrichment, the two sides could agree to further talks aimed at reaching a broad “understanding on principles,” said Mousavian, similar to the first phase of the negotiations leading up to the 2015 nuclear deal.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/11/us-iran-nuclear-talks-witkoff-trump/
April 9, 2025
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University, said he believed there was a chance of success for the negotiations, where both sides leave the table with an outcome they can sell to the people of their countries, including one in which Iran submits to regular inspections.
“Steve Witkoff, to my understanding, he really wants to make a deal. He really doesn’t want war, and he has the same mind-set as President Trump,” Mr. Mousavian said. “Therefore, I see the chance. But the reality is that Iran and the U.S. have 45 years of hostilities to resolve and to agree is very complicated.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/us/politics/trump-iran-nuclear-deal.html
April 9, 2025
Why Iran-US indirect talks can lead to direct talks
March 3, 2025
NORTHAM: Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a Mideast security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University, says it’s also a mistake to think that Iran will agree to anything just because it’s had a string of setbacks.
SEYED HOSSEIN MOUSAVIAN: Iranians, always they are very sensitive not to negotiate, not to make a deal, as long as the other side has a feeling of weakness on the Iranian side.
NORTHAM: Mousavian says Trump should think of Iran like an investment opportunity, especially with the country’s vast oil and gas resources.
MOUSAVIAN: The real game changer in U.S.-Iran relation is economic engagement because Iran has been under sanctions for 40 years and needs trillions of dollars in investment for economic cooperation.
NORTHAM: And as Trump has shown, nothing is off the table.
Jackie Northam, NPR News.
Nuclear Weapons Free Middle East – A Lost Idea? American intransigence in the way of a settlement over the Iran nuclear dossier since early 2000 kept the nuclear pot boiling in the Middle East. With a war cloud hovering over the region due to Israel-Iran tension, Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had last year declared that Iran can produce nuclear weapons and is prepared to change its policies on using them if faced with an existential threat. This raised a vital question – Is the possibility of establishing a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East now effectively over? Egypt first mooted the idea in 1990. In a conversation with this journalist, Iranian nuclear negotiator Ambassador Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who served on Iran’s nuclear diplomacy team in negotiations with IAEA, opened up on a WMD-free Middle East with Israel as a party. Mousavian wants broad negotiations on the nuclear issue as well as the dangerous confrontations now occurring across the Middle East.
An improvement in Iran-Saudi Arabia relations has created a window of opportunity for the U.S. to support a comprehensive deal between the eight countries around the Persian Gulf region to establish a system of collective security and cooperation, he says. Besides, the Iranian nuclear diplomat believes, that by pressing Israel to implement the UN resolutions calling for a two-state solution in Palestine, President Trump could bring an end to the eight decades-old Palestinian crisis and realise the UN resolution on nuclear weapons-free Middle East too.
But without Israel giving up its nukes, can a WMD-free Middle East ever become a reality? Israelis have consistently maintained that the hate towards Israel and Jews in general is deeply rooted in the region’s psyche and is religiously motivated. This insecurity will come in the way of Israel relinquishing its nuclear weapons even when an independent Palestine is achieved. Mousavian also welcomed any Indian engagement to de-escalate Iran-West tension in the context of New Delhi nudging Tehran to favour dialogue over confrontations and helping them to get out of the FATF blacklist.
The superpower members of the UNSC are the source of the conflicts
Seyed Hossein Mousavian’s statement minute 50 to 60
November 7, 2024
Al Arabiya News presents W News’ special weeklong coverage of the 2024 US Presidential Election, with interviews from important figures, analysis from special experts and all the reaction to the US Presidential Election results. We’ll be joined by Tom Burges Watson and Sarah Coates for a 2-hour special on the US Election as well as a Riz Khan special episode. In this W News special episode, we react to Kamala Harris conceding the election to Donald Trump and the concession speech she gave. We’ll also discuss the Tariffs Trump plans to implement and what it could mean not only for the US economy but the world economy, the US relations with China and Iran and how they might change under Trump’s leadership and more. Guests: Simon Marks – Senior US Correspondent Nadia Bilbassy – Washington Bureau Chief for Al Arabiya David Kusnet – Former White House Director Of Speech writing to Bill Clinton Giles Gibson – Israel Correspondent Professor Chuck Freilich – Former Israeli Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Vaughn – Former US Trade Representative under Donald Trump Freddie Gray – Deputy Editor of The Spectator Seyed Hossein Mousavian – former Senior Negotiator of Iran for Nuclear Issue Victor Gao – Vice-President of the Center for China and Globalization B.J. Martino – Republican Pollster Professor Francis Buckley – Former Trump Speechwriter
13.10.2024
Seyed Hossein Mousavian is a former ambassador to Germany. He was a spokesman for Iran in the nuclear negotiations in the EU in 2005. He is now a researcher at Princeton University in the USA.
Iran has no interest in escalating the situation. The new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, wants to reduce tensions and focus on diplomacy and the economy, Hossein explains.
– Netanyahu is against this policy. That is one of the reasons he wants to drag Iran and the USA into a major war.
Iran has stated that they support a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction and will commit to this, according to Hossein.
–Unless they are attacked.
For the question is not whether Iran can become a nuclear power. It’s about whether they want to. Previously, Iran has weighed the value of nuclear weapons against international reactions. Now the value of possessing “the world’s most powerful deterrent” may be greatest.
American intelligence estimates that it will take Iran about six months to build a bomb. Therefore, several Israeli officials believe that Israel must act now. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said they have the “greatest opportunity in 50 years” to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.
An attack on the nuclear facilities would create such a severe security situation that Iran would feel they have no choice:
– Then Iran could become a nuclear power, says Hossein.
But Israel cannot attack Iran’s nuclear facilities alone. Now, the fate lies in the hands of the USA, according to Hossein.
“The Worst Deal in History”
Experts agree that it is hard to avoid thinking about how the situation could have been different.
In 2018, Donald Trump withdrew the USA from the nuclear deal with Iran. Experts warned Trump against doing so, but he insisted that it was “the worst deal in history.”
Trump believed that the deal led to the international community pouring money into Iran and “financing terrorism.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump for making a “historic decision.”
This decision led Iran to begin developing nuclear facilities, points out Hossein.
