Al Monitor| Laura Rozen: The Barack Obama administration and European allies are trying to buy time for the Iran nuclear deal, working to resolve any technical ambiguities in the accord and trying to make the case to the emerging Donald Trump team that the deal is working and renegotiating it is not a viable option.





The nuclear deal “is a decent deal … it works,” a European diplomat, speaking not for attribution, said Dec. 14, conveying the message European governments have conveyed to US interlocutors in recent weeks. “When issues come up” — technical ambiguities in the agreement, for instance — “we are able to resolve them. … As of today, the deal is implemented in the correct manner.”

“Why would we want to disregard something that can give peace a chance?” the diplomat said.

“If the US walks out, it may well be alone,” the diplomat added. “If the failure of the deal is because of the US, it should not expect the Europeans to do the same.”

While the Obama administration increasingly thinks it is unlikely, if not inconceivable, that the Trump administration comes in and rips up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it worries about other scenarios that could strain the year-old nuclear accord and derail years of effort to put US-Iran relations on a less confrontational footing. Paradoxically, trying to renegotiate the deal to strengthen it could cause the erosion of the international consensus that undergirds it.


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