According to recent media reports, President Trump is expected this week to decertify the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran nuclear deal, declaring it is no longer in the national interests of the United States. If the Iran nuclear deal is decertified, Congress could reimpose sanctions on Iran.
Mark Bell—assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota and expert on nuclear weapons and proliferation, international relations theory and U.S. and British foreign policy—weighs in on the consequences of decertifying the Iran nuclear deal.
"It appears increasingly likely that President Trump will declare that the nuclear deal with Iran is no longer in the national interests of the United States. This would punt the issue to Congress, while implicitly acknowledging that Iran is not violating the terms of the deal. What would happen after that point is uncertain: whether Congress would choose to reimpose sanctions on Iran, or whether any other countries will go along with the U.S. if it sought to to renegotiate the deal. There may also be broader consequences: The U.S. seeking to undermine the Iran nuclear deal is likely to empower hardliners in Iran who argued that the U.S. would never abide by the deal, and harm the broader credibility of the U.S., making it harder for the U.S. to negotiate deals with both allies and adversaries."
Professor Bell holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow, and a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from St. Anne's College, Oxford University.
Mark Bell
Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota
Contact information:
[email protected]
612-626-2889 (office)
202-294-3364 (cell)
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