The United States may have negotiated a deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran to end the war, but the specifics of the deal are, so far, opaque, with much misinformation circulating. This has led some to claim that the Trump administration’s deal is nothing more than a retread of the Obama administration’s 2015 deal with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.Ben Rhodes, who was the main Obama administration proponent of the JCPOA, has most vehemently made the case that the U.S. went to war in 2026, only to get less than the deal former President Barack Obama secured in 2015, and that this has weakened the U.S. But Ben “They-Call-Me-Hamas” Rhodes is quite wrong. As always, context is king here, and the context for the two Iran deals is very different.
IN FOCUS: TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL MUST BE NOTHING LIKE OBAMA’S
Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal in context
In 2013, the Iranian regime was facing extremely tough U.S. sanctions for its unrivaled belligerence toward the U.S. and its efforts to develop nuclear weapons, sanctions that had been spearheaded by members of Congress. This prompted the Obama administration to relax those sanctions by entering an interim agreement with Iran, the Joint Plan of Action, during which the two countries negotiated the JCPOA. Over the two years, the U.S. paid Iran either $11.9 billion or $19.9 billion for the privilege of negotiating. During this time, Iran continued its normal anti-U.S. behavior and funded its usual terrorist groups.
