Lawfare Archive: The Trump Administration’s Latest Moves to Dismantle the Iran Nuclear Agreement with Peter Harrell and Richard Nephew
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 January 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
From June 8, 2020: On May 27, the Trump administration announced that it was withdrawing sanctions waivers that had allowed Russian, Chinese and European companies to work with Iran on sensitive Iranian nuclear sites in support of the goals of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Margaret Taylor talked about what it really means with two experts: Peter Harrell, an attorney and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and Richard Nephew, senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. They talked about what has happened since the Trump Administration decided to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement in 2018 and what difficulties a new presidential administration may encounter in re-joining the agreement.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Marissa Wong, intern at Lawfare, with an episode from the Lawfare Archive for January 17, 2006. |
| 0:18.7 | For the past two weeks, protests in Iran have raged on, posing new challenges to the country's authoritarian rule. |
| 0:26.2 | The Iranian government has responded in a brutal crackdown, reportedly killing between 2,400 to 12,000 protesters, and shutting down the country's cell service and internet access. |
| 0:37.8 | These protests have thrown fuel on the fire of U.S.-Iran relations, |
| 0:42.1 | as President Trump says he's considering military strikes in response to the crackdown. |
| 0:47.2 | For today's archive, I chose an episode from June 8th, 2020, |
| 0:51.8 | in which Margaret Taylor sat down with Peter Harrell, an adjunct senior fellow at the |
| 0:56.1 | Center for a New American Security, and Richard Neffield, a senior research scholar at the |
| 1:01.1 | Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, to discuss Trump's decision to withdraw |
| 1:06.6 | sanction waivers during his first term that had allowed Russian, Chinese, and European companies |
| 1:12.5 | to work with Iran on sensitive nuclear sites, as well as the effects of the administration's |
| 1:17.6 | withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement in 2018. I'm Marker Taylor, and this is the Lawfare podcast, June 8th, 2020. |
| 1:37.9 | On May 27th, the Trump administration announced that it was withdrawing sanctions waivers |
| 1:42.9 | that had allowed Russian, Chinese, and European companies to work with Iran on sensitive Iranian nuclear sites in support of the goals of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. |
| 1:53.8 | In this podcast, I talked about what it really means with two experts. |
| 1:59.1 | Peter Harrell, an attorney and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for |
| 2:02.8 | a New American Security, and Richard Nephew, senior research scholar at the Center on Global |
| 2:08.8 | Energy Policy at Columbia University. I met Peter and Richard nearly a decade ago when we all |
| 2:15.3 | worked on Iran sanctions issues while we were in government. |
| 2:18.7 | We talked about what has happened since the Trump administration decided to withdraw from the |
| 2:23.2 | Iran nuclear agreement in 2018 and what difficulties a new presidential administration may |
| 2:28.9 | encounter in rejoining the agreement. It's the Lawfare podcast, June 8th, the Trump administration's |
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