Obama Tries To Salvage Iran Deal

US to Iran: Reduce nuclear stockpile so Trump won't rip up deal

The US is negotiating with Iran to reduce its nuclear stockpile in order to convince President-elect Donald Trump not to tear up the JCPOA.

Gary Willig | Yesterday, 10:05 AM

The US and other Western countries are pressuring Iran to drastically reduce the amount of nuclear material it holds in order to strengthen the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic and give President-elect Donald Trump a greater incentive to let the deal stand after he takes office.

While the discussions about reducing Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium have been carried out for months, they have taken on a new urgency after Republican candidate Donald Trump emerged victorious in this month's US Presidential election.

Trump has called the nuclear deal, the JCPOA, "disastrous," leading to speculation that he could rip up the deal, which was not approved by the US Senate. Longtime Trump supporter and former mayor of New York Rudy Guliani has stated that Trump can tear up the JCPOA "on day one." A Trump adviser, Walid Phares, said that Trump would not tear up the deal in its entirety, but would seek to change the deal and considers it unacceptable in its current form.

US officials said that the breakout time it would take for Iran to amass enough nuclear material to assemble a nuclear weapon should it abandon the JCPOA would be lengthened by the new plan for it to reduce its nuclear stockpile, though they did not specify by how much.