Obama: Trump-Tehran Deal Unlikely to Improve on 2015 Nuclear Accord

Washington DC. US President Barack Obama has said that it is impractical to expect any agreement between US President Donald Trump and Tehran to be a 'significant improvement' over the 11-year-old comprehensive nuclear deal.

In an excerpt of an interview released on Sunday on ABC News' talk show 'This Week', the former president suggested that it would be better to negotiate for an agreement that falls short of Washington's desire to avoid full-scale war.

Citing the historic deal reached in 2015, former President Obama said, "We are skeptical that any agreement will be significantly different from or a significant improvement over the agreement we reached."

He said, "The agreement reached during my presidency had worked for a long time. The United States withdrew from it." It should be recalled that President Trump announced that the US was withdrawing from the nuclear deal reached by world powers led by the US, stating that it was not in the US interest. Subsequently, Iran also claimed that it was not bound to abide by it, stating that one party to the agreement had withdrawn from it, and gradually withdrew from it. The agreement stipulated that in return for Iran not enriching uranium, some US economic sanctions imposed on it would be eased.

In late February, the Middle East war began after the US and Israeli forces attacked Iran, and for months President Trump had announced sanctions against Iran.

Trump has emphasized that this agreement will permanently stop Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons and immediately open the Strait of Hormuz, which has been under blockade. Tehran has not yet confirmed signing the agreement, and after Israel's attack on Lebanon on Sunday, Iran said that there is no point in peace talks with the US for now.

Obama said, "The slow progress of a US-Iran new agreement illustrates that instead of engaging in comprehensive diplomacy, Washington cannot 'threaten our way or bomb our way to a solution.'"