“Trump’s apparent hope that Iran will offer unilateral concessions is questioned by Iran experts. ‘I don’t believe Tehran would be ready at all to renegotiate the deal,’ said Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former Iranian official who now teaches at Princeton University but remains in touch with his ex-colleagues. He called the idea a ‘nonstarter.’”
“The right question to ask about the Iran nuclear deal,” David Ignatius, The Washington Post, September 14, 2017.
“Because Trump has put the deal in his crosshairs, advocates of diplomatic engagement with the West in Iran are being discredited. If he goes ahead with his stated wish to undo it, a domestic consensus will form not to trust, negotiate or cooperate with the United States on any future issue.”
“What to expect if Trump undoes the Iran nuclear deal,” Seyed Hossein Mousavian, The Los Angeles Times, September 14, 2017.
“An informed source in Washington who asked to remain anonymous told Al-Monitor that the White House is seeking ways to accuse Iran of technical noncompliance and material breaches of the deal, such as pressuring the International Atomic Energy Agency into demanding access to sensitive military facilities in Iran and using an Iranian rejection as a pretext for withdrawing from the deal; renegotiating the deal to get zero uranium enrichment in Iran or make the current limits on the Iranian nuclear program permanent; and trying to validate a 2016 German intelligence report claiming Iran continued “illegal proliferation-sensitive procurement activities,” despite the fact it was already dismissed by the Barack Obama administration and independent experts.”
“Trump’s options on the nuclear deal with Iran,” Seyed Hossein Mousavian, Al Monitor, August 1, 2017.
One state supporting the ban treaty negotiations, Iran, can play a unique role in making the talks a success. Three chief reasons explain why Iran can and should be a strong advocate to advance the causes of nuclear non-proliferation and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
“This is why Iran should play a major role in the negotiations to ban nuclear weapons,” Seyed Hossein Mousavian, The Independent, June 14, 2017.
“Tehran’s assessment of the Trump administration is that it doesn’t have a solid strategy,” said Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who was a member of Iran’s negotiating team that agreed in 2003 to suspend uranium enrichment and is now a scholar at Princeton. “So Iran will be patient to see what the strategy will be.”
“Other countries are still trying to figure out what Trump means to them,” Erin Cunningham et al, The Washington Post, April 28, 2017.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former senior Iranian diplomat, analyzes the Trump administration’s “review” of the Iran nuclear agreement despite acknowledging that Tehran is fulfilling its obligations, and discusses the threat of a worsening proxy war in Yemen, Iran’s support for Bashar al-Assad, the upcoming Iranian presidential elections, and the possibility for Tehran-Washington cooperation on Syria and other Middle East issues.
“U.S. Threatens Nuclear Deal it Admits Iran Respects – How Will Tehran Respond?” The Real News Interview, April 25, 2017.
Interview: The effect of a Trump Presidency on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aka The Iran Nuclear Agreement and the possible fallout of Trump’s Revised Travel Ban on the Agreement and Global Security.
“Interview: Going Global With David Delgado,” Voice It Radio, March 27, 2017.
The American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs held a Panel Discussion with the International Panel on Fissile Materials.
Chair: Ali Ahmad and Zia Mian
IPFM: Hossein Mousavian (From JCPOA to ME-NWFZ)
IPFM: Frank von Hippel (Uranium enrichment and plutonium separation)
IPFM: Rebecca Johnson (the nuclear Middle East, the NWFZ, and the ban treaty)
“Former Iranian diplomat Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who is closely allied with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and who served as spokesman for his country’s nuclear negotiations with the European Union from 2003 to 2005, believes that Iran is keen to maintain the deal … ‘Since day one, no one has been able to complain of any failure of Iran in implementing the deal,’ Mousavian told Middle East Eye at a mostly closed-door conference on nuclear challenges in the region at the American University of Beirut on 15 March.”
Read More
“Iran committed to nuclear deal despite Trump threats, say observers,” Abby Sewell, Middle East Eye, March 19, 2017.
“As Iran goes ahead with new ballistic missile tests and the tone in Washington grows tougher, is the fragile peace between Iran and the US in jeopardy? And can the hard-fought nuclear deal survive the tensions? We ask the man who negotiated the agreement for Iran, former head of the Iranian National Security Council’s Foreign Relations Committee and professor at Princeton university – Seyed Hossein Mousavian.”
“America’s 4-decade push for regime change in Iran a failure – Iran nuclear deal negotiator,” Russia Today, February 20, 2017.
