JCPOA, a confidence building measure: Pak analyst

“You don’t have to wait for many years to see the fruits of it but certainly with a passage of time the relationship between the US and Iran which has always been a problem will definitely get better because both the countries can gain the confidence as a consequence of this agreement,” said Lieutenant General (retd) Talat Masood during an interview with IRNA.

At the same time the analyst believes any deviation from implementation of the deal could create even more problems for the regional and international communities.

He said China, Russia and European countries are interested in keeping JCPOA preserved because they know the implications of doing away with the deal which was achieved after lot of hard work and thinking.

“If you have a deal it doesn’t mean that with change of the government you can change the deal, it is for all times to come. If you create uncertainty in these deals then I think international relations and general world order gets deeply disturbed,” he noted.

He added that the position of coming US administration under Donald Trump is not clear about the JCPOA because president elect has been raising concerns internationally and it seems he has been questioning the very agreement.

The analyst was of the view that the deal is very important as it took place at a time when there was an extreme tension between the United States, western powers and Iran.

“I think it did resolve this issue very amicably and also provided right to Iran to continue with the civil nuclear program at the same time whatever apprehensions western countries had about Iran’s nuclear program were also removed,” he said.

He said this agreement was lauded everywhere and the western countries in particular were very pleased with this deal so it satisfied both the parties.

“Most important advantage of this deal for the region is that America will not play a role in preventing regional countries like Iran and Pakistan to have good relations with each other,” he said.

Talat Masood went on to say that eventually one year may not be enough to see the outcome and all advantages of the deal, but if it is implemented in letter and spirit one can clearly see the advantages of it.

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