IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Individual Level Analysis
The Iran Nuclear Deal took several years in making and highlights an agreement between the six world powers and Iran over the issue of Iran developing nuclear weapons. The main politicians involved in the Iran Agreement were U.S. President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran’s President Hassan Rouha. These political leaders were actively engaged in negotiations seeking some form of respite from the growing concern over Iran’s nuclear program. Other important political leaders involved in the deal were UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Russia’s President Vladmir Putin, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, France’s François Hollande and China’s Xi Jinping who supported the United States claim of ending Iran’s nuclear program. Apart from these politicians, U.N. imposed trade embargo on Iran that cost the country Billions of dollars annually in trade revenue and significantly increased the unemployment rate to 24 percent in Iran.
The Iran Nuclear Deal was a long-term foreign policy goal of the Obama administration and they had been actively pursuing the deal for several years. The agreement between the six world powers (U.S., UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) and Iran is an acceptance of Tehran adhering to the strict limits placed in terms of nuclear activities. Ever since Hassan Rouha came to power in Iran, he has been working with President Obama to come to a consensus over the nuclear program. Iran under the leadership of Hassan Rouha negotiated the deal because the country suffering from the economic burden of trade embargo placed on them by Iran. In addition, the six superpowers pressured Iran continuously for years, though bilateral talks and U.N. sanctions and gave concessions on the first proposed deal to ensure Iran agreed on the landmark deal that ended their sanctions.
Domestic level politics influenced both Iran and the United States of America as domestic hardliners had to be convinced. In Tehran, a deal was dependent on convincing hardliners such as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei about the advantages of striking the nuclear deal for the state of Iran. In addition, any government at helm needed to accept several limits mentioned in the program and let IAEA access to their nuclear facilities. Iran also needed to prove that they can be trusted to uphold to their commitment and ensure they could manage to work with other nations. After all, any altercation or breaking of the rules could easily result in sanctions on the government. Also, several educated Iranians hate to be isolated from the globalized community and election of Hassan Rouhani was an indication of the path the country wants to take in coming future. Even though the hardliners hold a significant amount of power in the country, several government leaders in Iran are no longer revolutionary nationalists.
In the United States, there is a significant distrust in the political circle over Iran’s intentions. The mistrust comes especially from the Senate dominating Republican Party and Israeli lobby. There are substantial fears that Iran would end up sabotaging the agreement after developing technical competence for completing dash of nuclear weapon. This mistrust was witnessed after the Obama administration had reached an agreement with Iran over the deal as the opposition party criticized the urgency shown by the Obama administration to complete the deal. Mainly, the administration needs to convince a reluctant Congress to a deal that they believe needs to be revised as it leaves American at a disadvantage. Even though the Congress approved the sanction in 2010 and 2011 against Iran, they heavily opposed any agreement with Iran where any term is negotiated.
International Level of Analysis
The six superpowers and the United Nations played a crucial role in the Iran Nuclear deal. The combination of the six global superpowers the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany and China were actively involved in getting everything sorted and end the embargo and sanctions against Iran. The United States led by Secretary of State John Kerry, negotiated with Iran’s leaders over the development of nuclear technology in the country. Once Iran agreed to the majority of the terms in the deal, the U.N. was given a green light over lifting sanctions placed on Iran.
The interrelationship between the United States of America and the U.N. also played an important role in reaching an agreement peacefully. Back in 2010, when Iran was actively buying enriched uranium and developing their nuclear program, the United Nations placed economic sanctions after a request from U.S. over Iran’s actions that could lead to another war. The United Nations understanding the relevance of U.S. claims went ahead and placed sanctions on Iran in 2010 and added stricter sanction in 2011 that played a major role in bringing Iran to the table and discuss possible changes in their nuclear program.
Without the U.N. sanctions it would have been tough to convince Iran to agree over a nuclear deal. Overtime, the United Nations placed economic sanctions on Iran that ended up crippling their economy and increased unemployment rate to 24 percent. These indications led to the removal of the revolutionary nationalist party from power and the installation of a more moderate Hassan Rouhani as the political leader. Within a few months, Rouhani got in touch with the president of the United States of America and indicated Iran’s interest in halting their nuclear power pursuit.
Bibliography
Chubin, S. "The Politics of Iran's Nuclear Program." The Iran Primer. Last modified August 2015. http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/politics-irans-nuclear-program.
Norman, L., and J. Solomon. "Iran, World Powers Reach Nuclear Deal." WSJ. Last modified July 14, 2015. http://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-world-powers-reach-nuclear-deal-1436861667.
Sayah, R., H. Yan, and J. Levs. "Iran Reaches Nuclear Deal with World Leaders -- Now What? .com." CNN. Last modified November 25, 2013. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/25/world/meast/iran-nuclear-deal/.
