Iran nuclear deal is in the crosshairs and may not survive a Trump administration

The Washington Post, Jan. 11, 2017 - The Iran nuclear deal was written with several “sunset” provisions setting expiration dates, some of them 15 years into the future, when restrictions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program would lift.
Then Donald Trump was elected president and a sunset on the deal itself became possible. During the campaign, Trump regularly denigrated the Iran agreement. He vowed, at turns, to walk away from the 2015 accord, or renegotiate it, or enforce it so rigorously that it might collapse on its own.

Trump is expected to take a more confrontational approach with Iran, showing no tolerance for even small breaches of what was agreed upon. The strategy seems designed to increase pressure on Iran, stopping what critics consider backsliding or cheating, but also to compel it to moderate its actions elsewhere in the region.

Trump will take office a year and a half after the agreement was reached in Vienna, limiting Iran’s ability to amass enough material to build nuclear weapons without the world receiving advance warning. Although some aspects will remain in force for 10 or 15 years, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Iran would be required to grant inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency access to its nuclear facilities “forever.”