Interviews

Interviews, Media

A Debate Between Three Experts: Iranian, American, Israeli: Is Israel Dragging The US Into A War With Iran?

Posted on

April 29,2025

Donald Trump called it the worst deal in history. But can he strike a better one? Iran’s nuclear program is back under the microscope, with the US threatening military action if a new deal isn’t struck. So, could the region be heading for another war? And which countries are agitating from the sidelines?

Guests: Seyed Hossein Mousavian – Former Iranian Senior Nuclear Negotiator and Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist at Princeton University

Jonathan Conricus – Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former international spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces.

Scott Horton – American international affairs expert, author, and host of the Scott Horton Show.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2025/04/30/israeli-sabotage-cannot-be-ruled-out-in-port-blast-former-iranian-nuclear-negotiator-tells-the-national

Interviews, Media

My Interview with the NBC: As U.S. and Iran look to begin nuclear talks amid fresh sanctions, can there be a deal?

Posted on

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.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-iran-nuclear-talks-sanctions-donald-trump-weapons-israel-rcna200380

Interviews, Media

My interview with the New York Times: Why Iran’s Supreme Leader Came Around to Nuclear Talks with the U.S.

Posted on

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

Interviews, Media

My interview with The Washington Post: High-level talks to begin in Oman

Posted on

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/

Interviews, Media

New York Times Interview with Mousavian:Trump Wants an Iran Nuclear Deal, but It Must Be Better Than Obama’s

Posted on

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

Interviews, Media

Interview with NPR: What options the U.S. has to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon

Posted on

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.

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/03/nx-s1-5300166/what-options-the-u-s-has-to-prevent-iran-from-developing-a-nuclear-weapon

Interviews, Media

Defense & Security Magazine: Mousavian wants broad negotiations on the nuclear issue as well as the dangerous confrontations now occurring across the Middle East. 

Posted on

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.

https://www.dsalert.org/article/37