Iran is arguably the major focus of Middle East geopolitics. The country is in a hot proxy war with Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and a political proxy war with the Saudis in Lebanon. Arab countries, Israel, and the West consider Iran a pariah for its ties to Hezbollah and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
Also, President Donald Trump makes clear he wants the U.S. to pull out of the July 2015 agreement between Iran and the P5 +1 (U.S., U.K., Russia, China, France, plus Germany) to limit the country’s nuclear weapons capability. Mr. Trump calls it the “worst deal ever.”
We’ll discuss some of the history and possible future for the Iran nuclear deal, the country’s geopolitical moves, and how Iran may factor into Trump’s recent Jerusalem announcement with Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council. A writer and speaker, he’s an expert on U.S.-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign politics, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. Parsi is author of the new book Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy.