The Iran war will likely end with a negotiated settlement that will look much like the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran, the US, Russia, and other major powers, former US Secretary of State John Kerry said at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.
“My prediction is that we will get to an agreement,” said Kerry, who helped negotiate the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to limit Iran’s nuclear program. “I can’t tell you when or how exactly. And by the way, it ain’t going to be too far off what we already did.”
Iran has already shown that it won’t surrender, he said, and its new leaders are even more determined to resist than their predecessors.
Kerry, who is currently co-executive chairman of Galvanize Climate Solutions, added that US President Donald Trump’s decision to blockade the Strait of Hormuz will likely bring Iran back to the negotiating table. Any agreement must address Iran’s nuclear ambitions and allow free passage of ships through the strait, he said.
Under the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran agreed to accept restrictions on the number and type of centrifuges it operated, the level of uranium enrichment, and the size of its enriched uranium stockpile in return for relief from international sanctions. Trump pulled out of the deal, which was negotiated under former US President Barack Obama, in 2017.
We ended up with “a unilateral pullout” from that agreement, said Kerry, adding, “everything that has followed is the result of that catastrophic political decision.”