Former US President Barack Obama said while he is happy to see a ceasefire, it seems like the United States is “worse off” now than before President Donald Trump launched the war on Iran in February.
The former president noted that under the Iran nuclear deal negotiated during his administration, “Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons.”
“This administration, or a prior version of this administration, pulled out of it, which caused then Iran to develop more nuclear capacity,” Obama said in an interview with “TODAY” co-host Craig Melvin that aired Friday.
“We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died. And it feels like we’re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off,” Obama said.
Trump signed a memorandum of understanding during a dinner at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday night. It sets a 60-day deadline for negotiators to reach a more permanent deal to end the conflict.
Switzerland announced on Friday that planned talks following up on the deal to end the Middle East war had been postponed, hours after US Vice President JD Vance’s departure for the Alpine country was cancelled.
“The planned talks between the US, Iran, Qatar and Pakistan have been postponed,” the Swiss foreign ministry said in a message to AFP.
“Switzerland remains ready to facilitate these talks. The relevant preparatory work at Burgenstock is continuing,” it added, without providing a new date for the talks.
Nothing on Missiles
Trump and his administration sought to defend the memorandum.
On Thursday, Vance defended the “win-win” US-Iran agreement as critics slammed its vague provisions.
Trump said on social media that those who see problems with the memorandum are “fools” and either “jealous, bad people, or stupid.”
But AFP quoted experts as saying that although Iran suffered billions in damages and heavy blows from US and Israeli airstrikes, Tehran emerged from the conflict in a stronger geopolitical position.
They said Iran was already engaged in indirect talks before the war, and has now greater influence over the Strait of Hormuz.
Also, the memorandum mentioned nothing about Iranian conventional military forces (including missiles and drones) or support for proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
Experts expect Iran to make no concessions on these two files in future talks.
Richard Haass, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on Thursday: “Nothing in the MOU prejudices, one way or the other, the future status of the stock of enriched uranium in Iran, new enrichment-related activities, or inspections.”
“It's a much worse situation strategically for the US now than it was back in the 2010 to 2015 time period,” said Alan Eyre, distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute.
“The Iranian nuclear program is a lot more advanced now” -- though its nuclear facilities and enrichment ability were set back by US strikes last year -- and “there's a lot less bilateral trust,” said Eyre, one of the negotiators of the 2015 deal.
By attacking Iran, Washington has already played what would have been a major card: the threat of military force.
“We used it, and they're still standing. So what are we going to threaten them with?” Eyre said. “We have failed strategically, despite our military preeminence. Iran succeeded in that Iran's goal in this war was to survive.”
The memorandum of understanding -- signed by Trump and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday -- says Iran “reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons,” but provides no mechanism for that to be verified or enforced.
