President Trump’s recent announcement of his desire to negotiate with Iran has sparked concern among security experts. A former national security advisor warned against mirroring his approach with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Trump has characterized his relationship with Kim as a “love affair,” yet his attempts at diplomacy failed to curb North Korea’s nuclear advancements.
“Regarding negotiations, we’ll see how it unfolds,” commented John Hannah, former national security advisor to Dick Cheney and current JINSA senior fellow.
Hannah’s remarks came during a JINSA-hosted discussion in Washington, D.C., on Trump’s Iran negotiation plans.
“The worst-case scenario is a repeat of the Trump-Kim Jong Un dynamic: an initially strong stance followed by drawn-out, unproductive negotiations that yield no progress in dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program,” Hannah stated. “That’s the nightmare.”
Trump’s pursuit of a nuclear agreement with Iran, declared on Truth Social as a “Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement,” aims for an immediate start and a celebratory Middle East event upon completion. He wrote, “God Bless the Middle East!”
This announcement followed an executive order imposing sanctions on Iran’s oil exports. However, Trump subsequently expressed reservations about the order, stating he was “torn” and “unhappy” to sign it.
Details about Trump’s Iran negotiation strategy, including leadership, differences from Biden’s approach, and specifics of a new deal, remain undisclosed. The deal would differ from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an international agreement among the five permanent UN Security Council members (China, France, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S.), Germany, and the European Union, which Trump abandoned in 2018.
Hannah suggested that negotiations could be a tactical maneuver but cautioned that decades of discussions have yielded only Iran’s proximity to possessing nuclear weapons.
Hannah and Elliott Abrams, former special representative for Iran and Venezuela, highlighted the urgency, given the upcoming October presidency of the UN Security Council by Russia, a key Iranian ally.
Another October deadline looms: the expiration of the ability for remaining JCPOA nations to impose “snapback” sanctions on Tehran on October 18, 2025.
“Trump and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu need to discuss how long to allow these drawn-out negotiations to continue,” Abrams said, referencing the Biden administration’s unsuccessful attempts.
“The Iranians will likely claim that snapback sanctions would end negotiations and prompt their withdrawal from the nuclear nonproliferation treaty,” Abrams warned.
Iran’s repeated treaty violations are well documented, though nuclear deal advocates see it as a tool for maintaining engagement in non-proliferation discussions.
Abrams also suggested joint U.S.-Israeli military drills to underscore the potential consequences of Iran’s nuclear development.
Retired Major General Yaakov Amidror agreed, believing that Iran’s economic reliance on its nuclear program makes it unlikely to ignore U.S.-Israeli strike capabilities.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected any future negotiations with the Trump administration.