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Source: Getty

In The Media

Can Tehran and Washington Seal the Deal?

The Iran deal signed last week is significant. However, major obstacles and serious concerns among regional countries remain.

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By Karim Sadjadpour
Published on Apr 3, 2015
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Middle East

The Middle East Program in Washington combines in-depth regional knowledge with incisive comparative analysis to provide deeply informed recommendations. With expertise in the Gulf, North Africa, Iran, and Israel/Palestine, we examine crosscutting themes of political, economic, and social change in both English and Arabic.

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Source: KCRW’s To the Point

Speaking on KCRW’s To the Point, Carnegie’s Karim Sadjadpour explained that the Iranian deal announced last week has important implications. Assuming that a deal is signed following the June deadline, and that the deal continues to work for several years, there is still a valid concern that it would be hard to reconstitute sanctions against Iran should Iran return to harmful nuclear activities, he said. He added that there are also concerns that the Iranians may not be working on the same framework laid out by the U.S. Listening to the Iranian interpretation of the nuclear deal signed last week shows some discrepancies that would need to be worked out, he said.

U.S. allies in the Middle East, particularly Israel and the Arab states in the Persian Gulf, are concerned about the nuclear deal, Sadjadpour continued. It is expected that over the coming weeks and months, there will be a “tremendous U.S. outreach” towards those allies to talk about security pacts and calm their fears. The Obama administration is under pressure to prove that the nuclear deal is “not an acquiescence” in the face of Iran’s nuclear program and its troublesome regional activities, Sadjadpour added.

People may have unrealistic implications over what this deal means for Iran’s economy, Sadjadpour continued. Large Western multinational companies are unlikely to do business in Iran soon—instead they will probably take a wait-and-see approach. However, Chinese, Indian, and smaller European companies may “dip their toes in the water.” Iran is an attractive economy to the outside world as it has 75-80 million educated and Westernized consumers. This arguable makes Iran the largest market that is still isolated from globalization, he concluded.

This interview was originally broadcast on KCRW’s To the Point.

About the Author

Karim Sadjadpour

Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Karim Sadjadpour is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on Iran and U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East.

    Recent Work

  • Q&A
    What’s Keeping the Iranian Regime in Power—for Now

      Aaron David Miller, Karim Sadjadpour, Robin Wright

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Karim Sadjadpour
Senior Fellow, Middle East Program
Karim Sadjadpour
Political ReformForeign PolicyNuclear PolicyNorth AmericaUnited StatesMiddle EastIranIsraelSaudi ArabiaGulf

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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