Nuclear deal beneficial for Trump: former diplomat

February 13, 2017 - 20:49

Sadeq Kharrazi, a former Iranian diplomat, has said that it is beneficial for the U.S. President Donald Trump to protect the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the official name for the nuclear deal.

“It is in the full interest of the Trump administration to keep the deal alive and working. Iran’s options in the face of a collapse of the deal are multiple and will go beyond lobbying through its allies,” he told Al Jazeera in an interview published on Monday.

Kharrazi, who was Iran’s ambassador to France from 2002 to 2006, believes that scrapping the nuclear deal is not going to happen given the current consensus among Europeans to uphold it.

“Renegotiating the deal is neither possible nor doable under current circumstances. Europeans won't support it no matter how adamant the Trump administration would be on that,” Kharrazi said.

“I am confident that Trump will begin to realize this fact very soon and will take into consideration the reality of Iran in his setting of Middle East policies.”

Commenting on the new U.S. secretary of state’s lack of experience in foreign policy issues, he said, “I don’t think that his lack of political experience is going to be a serious problem. I think [U.S. Secretary of State] Tillerson’s long managerial experience on top of the ExxonMobil will play an important role in setting pragmatic Middle East policies. This non-political experience is a plus in my viewpoint.”

The former Iranian diplomat believes that Trump’s presidency offers both threats and opportunities to Iran’s foreign policy and national security.

“Trump’s long business record has potentially made him a deal broker which is essential in international relations. I believe this war of words and harsh rhetoric will be ebbed to considerable extent,” Kharrazi said.