An Architect of the Iran Deal Sees Her Work Crumbling
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2018
⏱️ 16 minutes
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Summary
Susan B. Glasser, a staff writer for The New Yorker based in Washington, speaks with Wendy Sherman about the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran deal. As the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs in the Obama Administration, Sherman helped write that agreement, and led the U.S. negotiating team in complex multilateral talks. She also has first-hand experience negotiating with the North Korean government, having visited Pyongyang with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during the Clinton Presidency.
The Iran deal seemed to be working: in exchange for curbing its nuclear program, as the International Atomic Energy Agency subsequently verified, Iran got relief from sanctions. But Donald Trump lambasted the deal throughout his campaign and Presidency; he called it overly generous and vowed to withdraw from it. John Bolton, his recently appointed national security adviser, opposed the deal on the grounds that verification was not “infallible.” Sherman has a sobering question for the Trump Administration, which now wishes to negotiate with Kim Jong Un about North Korea’s nuclear program: “How in God’s name can any verification or monitoring of North Korea be infallible?”
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| 0:48.8 | I'm Dorothy Wickenden. On today's Politics and More podcast, the New Yorker Susan Glasser talks with Wendy Sherman, |
| 0:56.0 | the former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President Obama. |
| 1:01.0 | Sherman led the United States delegation that negotiated the Iran nuclear deal. |
| 1:10.0 | We've learned that in the president's inner circle, even among hawks like Mike Pompeo, |
| 1:14.6 | there was an effort to salvage or at least renegotiate the Iran deal up until the last minute. |
| 1:20.5 | Because whether you like the deal or not, withdrawing from it creates problems on a global scale. |
| 1:26.9 | The deal itself seemed to be working. In exchange for |
| 1:29.8 | curbing its nuclear program, Iran got relief from sanctions. But Donald Trump decided to keep the |
| 1:35.5 | promise he had made all along on the campaign trail. This was a horrible one-sided deal that should |
| 1:41.4 | have never, ever been made. Therefore, I am announcing today that the |
| 1:48.1 | United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. The withdrawal will have diplomatic |
| 1:56.3 | and psychological consequences, not just in the Middle East, but all over the world. |
| 2:05.7 | Among other things, it will certainly complicate Trump's hope to get a deal done with North Korea. |
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