Vance says Trump-Iran MoU goes further than Obama nuclear pact

Washington,UPDATED: Jun 19, 2026 00:42 IST

US Vice President J D Vance on Thursday said the peace deal signed by President Donald Trump with Iran would go much further than former president Barack Obama’s nuclear pact in preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

At a press conference in Washington, Vance compared the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. He said the new deal was based on a fundamentally different approach and that further technical negotiations with Iran would now be held on the basis of the MoU agreed on Sunday and physically signed on Wednesday in Versailles.

Vance said that when the JCPOA was signed in 2015, Iran had already built a nuclear weapons programme and the US had "bribed" Tehran with American money to stop it. Defending the Trump-Pezeshkian MoU, he said, "Our perspective is we have already destroyed your nuclear programme. If you promise and show verifiable pathways to not rebuild it, then we are willing to give you some sanctions relief. So, it is a fundamentally different perspective."

He also claimed that Gulf Cooperation Council countries felt the Trump deal had made Iran weaker, while they had opposed Obama’s JCPOA because it made Tehran stronger. "The Obama nuclear deal allowed enrichment. Ours will not. The Obama deal allowed the accumulation of stockpiled weapons-grade material. Ours is actually leading to the destruction of that stockpile of enriched material," Vance said.

A comparison of the two documents shows major differences. The JCPOA was a detailed 18-page agreement with several annexures covering technical issues, while Trump’s 14-point deal is a roadmap for future negotiations. The signing of the MoU has also ended US military operations in Iran and led to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for around 20 per cent of global oil supplies.

The new 14-point deal does not spell out what will happen to Iran’s enriched uranium or its wider nuclear programme, with those details left to be settled over the next 60 days. Under the JCPOA, Iran had reaffirmed that "under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons". Under Trump’s MoU, Iran "reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons", with details to be finalised during further negotiations.

On uranium, the JCPOA did not require Iran to destroy its enriched uranium, but to reduce its stockpile to a low level of enrichment. It also capped uranium enrichment at 3.67 per cent for 15 years, far below the 90 per cent needed for weapons. Under Trump’s MoU, the handling of Iran’s uranium is to be decided during the 60-day negotiation period, though some limits are envisaged. The document says the US and Iran have "agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpiled enriched material" and also refers to downblending of Iran’s enriched uranium under Atomic Energy Agency supervision.

The JCPOA had sunset clauses ranging from 10 to 15 years, while Trump’s MoU has no sunset clauses for now. The JCPOA provided sanctions relief in return for Iran accepting limits on its nuclear programme. Under the MoU, nuclear sanctions are to be lifted if Iran meets its obligations, with the details to be worked out in the final deal, and it grants an immediate waiver for oil and petroleum trade. The JCPOA was also signed by China, Russia, the UK and Germany, while Trump’s MoU is a bilateral agreement mediated by Pakistan. Unlike the JCPOA, the MoU also says the US will make fully available the use of frozen or restricted Iranian funds and assets once the MoU is implemented.

Vance’s remarks and the text of the two agreements together underline the Trump administration’s effort to present the new MoU as tougher than the Obama-era JCPOA, while many of the key technical details are still to be worked out in the next round of talks with Iran.

With PTI Inputs

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