{"id":7313,"date":"2026-06-16T16:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/16\/from-jcpoa-exit-to-the-2026-deal-how-us-iran-ties-soured-under-trump\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T16:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:36:12","slug":"from-jcpoa-exit-to-the-2026-deal-how-us-iran-ties-soured-under-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/16\/from-jcpoa-exit-to-the-2026-deal-how-us-iran-ties-soured-under-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"From JCPOA exit to the 2026 deal: How US-Iran ties soured under Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The United States and Iran<\/a> are set to sign an initial<\/a> agreement in Geneva on Friday to end the US-Israel war on Iran<\/a>, begin a 60-day negotiation process, and resume traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Pakistan, which has taken the lead in mediating peace talks, will host the signing in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

However, neither side has yet published details of the agreement, so it is unclear to what extent Iran and the US have reached agreements on any major issues \u2013 or even whether to discuss them in the upcoming talks.<\/p>\n

While US President Donald Trump has indicated that Iran\u2019s nuclear programme will be part of any final agreement, he has made no mention at all of other previous US demands \u2013 such as dismantling Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles programme or ending its support for proxy armed groups in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that really \u200cmatters to me is Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and it says it \u2060loud and clear,\u201d Trump told reporters at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in France on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll \u2060hell will rain \u2060down\u201d on \u2060Iran if it intends to acquire a \u200cnuclear weapon, Trump added.<\/p>\n

Relations between Washington and Tehran have been fractured and tumultuous since Trump\u2019s first term as US president, when he withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).<\/p>\n

When Trump pulled the US out of the JCPOA, his approval stood at about 45 percent in mid-June 2018 in Gallup polling \u2013 matching or close to his best numbers until then. However, a Reuters\/Ipsos survey conducted in June this year put his approval at just 35 percent, near a record low for that poll.<\/p>\n

Here is how relations between Iran and the US have soured under Trump.<\/p>\n

May 2018: The US withdraws from the JCPOA<\/h2>\n

On May 8, Trump delivered on an election campaign promise<\/a> when he announced that the US would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA, which had been signed in 2015 with several countries, including the\u00a0European Union, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

The deal, brokered by then-US President Barack Obama, restricted uranium enrichment at Iran\u2019s Fordow nuclear facility to 3.67 percent \u2013 enough for energy production but very far from levels considered weapons grade. Iran also agreed not to store any nuclear material there but instead to \u201cconvert the Fordow facility into a nuclear, physics and technology centre\u201d. In return, the US and other Western nations lifted sanctions on Iran.<\/p>\n

That agreement took several years to negotiate with the input from nuclear experts. Even though independent inspections confirmed that Iran stuck to its side of the agreement in the following years, Trump described it as a \u201cterrible deal\u201d, but did not give specific details about what he disliked about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made clear that if the deal could not be fixed, the United States would no longer be a party to the agreement,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iran deal is defective at its core.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the US withdrawal, Iran called Trump\u2019s action \u201cunacceptable\u201d and said it would bypass Washington and negotiate with the deal\u2019s other signatories.<\/p>\n

On May 21, Washington made new demands that Iran make sweeping changes \u2013 from dropping its nuclear programme altogether to pulling out of the Syrian war \u2013 or face severe economic sanctions.<\/p>\n

In all, the Trump administration laid out 12 demands<\/a>, outlined by then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. These were rejected by Tehran.<\/p>\n

August 2018: The US imposes new sanctions on Iran<\/h2>\n

On August 7, the US imposed its first round of new sanctions<\/a> on Iran, which had earlier been lifted as part of the international nuclear deal. The sanctions barred trade with a range of business and production sectors in Iran, from aviation and carpets to pistachios and gold.<\/p>\n

November 2018: The US imposes more sanctions<\/h2>\n

On November 5, the US announced a new round<\/a> of sanctions, this time specifically targeting Iran\u2019s key oil and banking sectors.<\/p>\n

April 2019: Trump designates the IRGC a \u2018foreign terrorist organization\u2019<\/h2>\n

On April 8, Trump designated<\/a> Iran\u2019s elite, parallel military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a \u201cforeign terrorist organization\u201d (FTO), marking the first time Washington had formally labelled another country\u2019s military a \u201cterrorist\u201d group.<\/p>\n

The designation led to wide-ranging economic and travel sanctions on the IRGC under US law. In retaliation, Tehran deemed Washington a \u201cstate sponsor of terrorism\u201d and called Washington\u2019s forces stationed in the region \u201cterrorist groups\u201d. The US has 19 military sites<\/a>\u00a0in the Middle East, at which 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers are stationed.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE
(Al Jazeera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 2019: Iran backs out of JCPOA<\/h2>\n

On May 5, John Bolton, Trump\u2019s national security adviser, announced that the US was sending an aircraft carrier strike group<\/a> and US Air Force bombers to the Middle East \u201cin response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings\u201d.<\/p>\n

Three days later, Iran announced that it, too, would withdraw from the JCPOA. Iran said it was preparing to increase enriched uranium<\/a> and heavy water production at levels above the restrictions specified in the nuclear deal.<\/p>\n

This was followed by a series of regional attacks on land and at sea blamed on Tehran.<\/p>\n

In December 2019, a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base killed a US contractor and injured several US service members alongside Iraqi personnel. US officials blamed the Iran-backed Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah for the attack.<\/p>\n

The same month, the US military retaliated by striking locations belonging to Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n

January 2020: The assassination of Qassem Soleimani<\/h2>\n

On January 3, 2020, US forces assassinated Qassem Soleimani<\/a>, the head of the IRGC\u2019s elite Quds Force, in a drone strike while he was in Baghdad. The White House said this was done to deter future Iranian attack plans and accused Soleimani of \u201cactively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region\u201d.<\/p>\n

On January 9, 2020, Trump said Soleimani had been killed \u201cbecause they were looking to blow up our embassy\u201d in Baghdad.<\/p>\n

The US also threatened to strike Iranian sites if Iran attacked the US or its assets in the region.<\/p>\n

In March 2020, three soldiers belonging to a US-led coalition were\u00a0killed<\/a>\u00a0in a rocket attack at the Taji military base housing US and coalition troops near Baghdad. The US imposed a new set of sanctions on Iran.<\/p>\n

On June 29, 2020, Tehran\u00a0issued an\u00a0arrest warrant<\/a>\u00a0for Trump and several of his aides over Soleimani\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n

In retaliation for the assassination, Iran also launched a barrage of missiles at military bases in Iraq housing thousands of American and Iraqi troops. More than 100 US service members suffered traumatic brain injuries, according to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

The IRGC shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane shortly after takeoff from Tehran\u2019s international airport, reportedly mistaking it for a US cruise missile. All 176 people on board were killed.<\/p>\n

\"Soleimani
A man holds a picture of Iran\u2019s Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, at his funeral procession in Tehran, Iran, on January 6, 2020 [File: Nazanin Tabatabaee\/West Asia News Agency via Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2021: Biden restarts diplomacy<\/h2>\n

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won the US presidential election and, in April 2021, Iran and the US began indirect negotiations in Vienna, Austria, on how to restore the nuclear deal. Those talks, and others between Tehran and European nations, failed to yield a breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Prior to this, in July 2020, a mysterious explosion had destroyed a centrifuge production plant at Iran\u2019s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. Iran blamed the attack on Israel. In April 2021, Natanz was hit again in an attack widely believed to have been carried out by Israel. In the same month, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60 percent \u2013 its highest purity ever and a fairly short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.<\/p>\n

February 2025: Trump \u2018restores maximum pressure\u2019 on Iran<\/h2>\n

Shortly after Trump was inaugurated for his second term, the White House announced that he had signed a national security presidential memorandum restoring \u201cmaximum pressure<\/a>\u201d on Tehran aimed at \u201cdenying Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon, and countering Iran\u2019s malign influence abroad\u201d. The memorandum lacked details about what this would entail, but Trump hinted that measures could be tough.<\/p>\n

The US president made clear that he was reluctant to threaten force, angling instead for a diplomatic solution via talks.<\/p>\n

May 2025: Trump says the US and Iran are close to a nuclear deal<\/h2>\n

During Trump\u2019s Gulf tour<\/a> in May 2025, his diplomatic stance appeared to be holding. Trump said the US had engaged in \u201cvery serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace\u201d. He added that Washington and Tehran had \u201csort of\u201d agreed to the terms of a nuclear deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting close to maybe doing a deal\u2026 There [are] two steps to doing this: There is a very, very nice step, and there is the violent step, but I don\u2019t want to do it the second way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Just two days after claiming to be close to a deal with Iran on nuclear weapons, Trump went on the attack on social media: \u201cLet nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n

Tensions had been mounting for months as the Iran-backed\u00a0Houthis<\/a>\u00a0in Yemen launched attacks on Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea and\u00a0on Israel itself<\/a>\u00a0over Israel\u2019s war on Gaza.<\/p>\n

On May 28, Trump seemed to have reversed his stance again, however, when he said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off<\/a> on any strike on Iran because it \u201cwould be inappropriate to do right now because we\u2019re very close to a [diplomatic] solution [on Iran\u2019s nuclear status]\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"houthis\"
The oil tanker Cordelia Moon bursts into flames after being hit by a missile in the Red Sea near Hodeida, Yemen, in this video screen grab released on October 1, 2024 [File: Houthi Military Media\/ Handout via Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 2025: 12-day war<\/h2>\n

On June 13, Israel launched strikes on Iran. Over 12 days, it hit nuclear and military sites, as well as other government installations. On June 22, the US joined in the war, attacking three Iranian nuclear sites.<\/p>\n

Iran responded to the US attack by targeting a military base in Qatar hosting American troops, causing limited damage. A day after this, Trump announced a ceasefire in the war.<\/p>\n

December 2025: New protests in Iran<\/h2>\n

Protests broke out in Iran after the Iranian rial plunged to a record low<\/a> of 1.42 million rials to the US dollar, compounding inflationary pressures and pushing up the prices of food and other daily necessities.<\/p>\n

In January 2026, Trump said he had called off meetings with Iranian officials and promised the Iranian people that unspecified \u201chelp is on its way\u201d.<\/p>\n

February 2026: The US-Israeli war on Iran begins<\/h2>\n

On February 28, Israel and the US launched strikes on Tehran, killing Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a> in the conflict\u2019s first moments, and triggering the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States and Iran are set to sign an initial agreement in Geneva on Friday to end the US-Israel war on Iran, begin a 60-day negotiation process, and resume traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Pakistan, which has taken the lead in mediating peace talks, will host the signing in Switzerland. However, neither side … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}