How the Iran Nuclear Deal Collapsed: JCPOA, Maximum Pressure & Soleimani

Who's who

• Barack Obama+3 more episodesPresident who negotiated the 2015 deal
• Hassan Rouhani+1 more episodeIranian president who spoke with Obama by phone in 2013
• Javad Zarif+1 more episodeIranian foreign minister and nuclear negotiator
• John KerryObama-era diplomat who helped build the deal
• Donald Trump+11 more episodesPresident who withdrew in 2018 and ordered the Soleimani strike
• Qasem SoleimaniQuds Force commander killed in a U.S. drone strike

Where it happens

• Oman+1 more episodeHost of the secret negotiating channel
• Arak, Iran+1 more episodeReactor core neutralized under the deal
• Baghdad, Iraq+1 more episodeWhere the January 2020 drone strike killed Soleimani
• U.S. bases in IraqTargets of Iran's ballistic-missile retaliation

Timeline

1. 2013Obama and Rouhani speak by phone, the first direct presidential contact since 1979.
2. July 2015The JCPOA is signed: enriched uranium shipped out, centrifuges slashed, inspections expanded.
3. May 2018Trump withdraws from the deal and launches "maximum pressure."
4. 2019Tanker incidents and a downed U.S. drone raise tensions.
5. January 3, 2020A U.S. drone strike in Baghdad kills Soleimani; Iran fires missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq.