Trump aims to end Iran war but nuclear issue remains unresolved

Jacob Olidort, chief research officer at the America First Policy Institute, says Trump was right.

“All of these issues were completely pushed to the sidelines, completely deprioritised and not included in the arrangement,” he told BBC Verify.

Baroness Ashton, who negotiated the deal on behalf of the UN Security Council, rejects this.

“There was plenty of opportunity afterwards to talk about other issues, ballistic missiles, drones etc. And indeed the Trump administration in its first term could have done that,” she added.

“If President Trump felt that the deal was inadequate, then the answer was to build on it, not to rip it up.”

Olidort says the time-limited nature of the deal meant Iran could have eventually pursued a nuclear weapon.

“It was always made explicit in the deal that the terms of the deal would expire… The sunset clauses in effect nullify their effectiveness,” he argues.

Davenport says that because some limits on the uranium enrichment level and stockpile size were only set for 15 years, “by January 2031, Iran could theoretically expand its enrichment programme”.

But many other features were permanent, including IAEA safeguards, she said, adding: “There was still a whole host of other provisions that would have provided assurance that any move in that direction [towards a nuclear weapon] would have been quickly detected”.