Trump says any Iran deal he reaches will beat the 2015 JCPOA, but no war-ending agreement has emerged and experts say the old pact’s monitoring provisions matter.
President Donald Trump is again defending the absence of a war-ending agreement with Iran by attacking the Obama-era nuclear deal he withdrew from in 2018, even as he continues to signal that talks with Tehran are progressing.
The prior agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, was reached in 2015 by Iran and an international coalition that included the United States under then-President Barack Obama. It limited parts of Iran’s nuclear program and imposed expanded monitoring in exchange for conditional relief from nuclear-related sanctions.
Trump told NBC News that Iran had dealt with “very weak and ineffective leadership” in the past and said, when asked why Tehran was still holding out in negotiations, “It takes a little while … This should have been done long ago.”
The dispute matters now because the Iran war has stretched into its fourth month without a short-term peace deal, let alone a new framework for containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Trump has repeatedly said any deal he reaches will be stronger than the JCPOA, while many national security experts argue the 2015 pact succeeded in slowing Iran’s nuclear work and creating an unusually intrusive inspection system.
The JCPOA capped Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile at about 660 pounds enriched to 3.67% for 15 years, a level associated with commercial nuclear power. It also required reductions in installed centrifuges, measures to block weapons-grade plutonium production and restrictions on nuclear infrastructure development. Some provisions were permanent, while others were designed to last 10, 15, 20 years or longer.
Ernest Moniz, who was U.S. energy secretary when the agreement was completed, told CNBC that one of its most important features was its verification regime, including access for international inspectors to suspected covert sites within 24 days. Kelsey Davenport of the Arms Control Association described the monitoring system as effective and unusually intrusive, while noting that the deal was not perfect.
Critics of the JCPOA objected to its sunset provisions and argued it did not sufficiently address Iran’s missile program or support for terrorism. Trump, who pulled the United States out of the pact during his first term, has long argued that the agreement would have allowed Iran to move toward a nuclear weapon.
Since the U.S. withdrawal, Iran has breached the JCPOA’s nuclear limits, including by increasing uranium enrichment and reducing some transparency measures. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s most recent assessment cited by CNBC said Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile as of June 2025 was nearly 21,800 pounds, including more than 970 pounds enriched up to 60%. Weapons-grade uranium is generally considered 90% enriched, though uranium enriched to 60% can be used as a nuclear explosive.
Moniz told CNBC that the JCPOA is now “history” because it is not being followed by Iran, meaning any current diplomacy would require a new agreement. The open question is whether Trump can secure one that both ends the current conflict and restores credible limits on a nuclear program that has advanced since the original deal collapsed.
Comments (0)