Iran says no longer bound by nuclear restrictions
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Iran says it is no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme as its landmark 10-year deal with world powers expired on Saturday. A foreign ministry statement said the limits agreed in 2015 no longer applied, although Tehran remained firmly committed to a diplomatic solution.
Also on the programme: Pakistan and Afghanistan hold peace talks after days of clashes and deadly airstrikes near the border; and the single blood test that can find as many as 50 different cancers.
(Photo: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors and diplomats to Iran on 05 October 2025. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service coming live from London. |
| 0:14.3 | This is Owen Bennett-Jones. |
| 0:16.1 | Now, back in 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which in general terms |
| 0:24.7 | limited Iran's nuclear development program for 10 years in return for some sanctions relief. |
| 0:31.2 | And then President Trump pulled out of that deal in his first term. That was 2018. |
| 0:36.8 | The Iran deal is defective at its core. |
| 0:41.3 | If we do nothing, we know exactly what will happen. |
| 0:47.1 | In just a short period of time, the world's leading state sponsor of terror |
| 0:51.5 | will be on the cusp of acquiring the world's most dangerous weapons. |
| 0:58.5 | Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. |
| 1:08.2 | And he did, and Biden, in his term, didn't try to revive it, so it's been a dead |
| 1:12.5 | letter for some time now. But an Iranian statement today does mark the 10-year period being |
| 1:18.3 | officially over, and Tehran says it's no longer bound by the JCPOA restrictions, although it says |
| 1:25.5 | it does remain committed to a diplomatic solution. |
| 1:28.3 | Well, I'm joined now by our chief international correspondent, Lees Doucette, who's covered Iran a lot and was there in 2015. |
| 1:34.9 | And Natalie Tochi, who was a special advisor to the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, when this was all being negotiated. |
| 1:43.4 | She's in Rome. |
| 1:44.7 | Lees, you were at the signing, I think at the signing ceremony in 2015. What did it mean for Iran |
| 1:51.9 | to get into it? It meant a lot for Iran. It meant a lot for the international community. It was |
| 1:58.7 | hailed as a landmark, multinational weapons control |
| 2:03.9 | agreement, a triumph of diplomacy. I can still feel the air in Vienna. They had negotiated |
... |
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