Former nationwide safety adviser Susan Rice blasted the preliminary agreement between the Trump administration and Iran in an excusive interview Sunday, calling the conflict with Iran a “strategic blunder” and arguing that the USA has now made “so many concessions” that quantity to “a really dangerous final result.”
“It is egregious, Jon, as a result of so many concessions had been granted up entrance on this flimsy, two-page memorandum of understanding that would not usually and should not have been granted till after there was not solely a full complete deal to no less than cope with their nuclear program, but in addition that these provisions that had been negotiated had been agreed,” Rice instructed ABC Information’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
Rice served as former President Barack Obama’s nationwide safety adviser when the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally often called the Joint Complete Plan of Motion, was negotiated over a 12 months and a half earlier than finally being signed in July 2015. Beneath that multinational settlement, Iran made quite a few concessions on its nuclear program and agreed to by no means search or develop a nuclear weapon, one thing it reaffirmed within the newest settlement. Among the many concessions Iran made weren’t enriching bomb-grade uranium for 15 years, dismantling two-thirds of its centrifuges, giving up 98% of its uranium stockpile and permitting United Nations inspectors to watch its adherence to the deal’s phrases.
Former Obama nationwide safety adviser and U.N. ambassador Susan Rice seems on ABC Information’ “This Week” on June 21, 2026.
ABC Information
Based on the textual content of the present settlement, essentially the most delicate nuclear points should not but agreed to on paper. Just one paragraph of the memo addresses Iran’s nuclear program — “The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons” — however on the difficulty of enrichment limits and coping with the nation’s stockpile of extremely enriched uranium, the textual content shouldn’t be definitive.
“The USA of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran have agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpile enriched materials pursuant to a mechanism that will probably be mutually agreed upon … with the minimal methodology to be down mixing on web site beneath the supervision of the (Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company). The 2 events additionally agreed to debate the difficulty of enrichment and different mutually agreed issues associated to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear wants,” the memo reads.
As of the signing of this settlement, Rice famous, Iran “is now capable of promote all of its oil and all of its oil merchandise in the marketplace unimpeded, and use that cash to re-hold itself.”
“Second, they get entry to tens of billions of {dollars} of frozen belongings within the very close to time period, inside the subsequent 60 days, contingent solely upon the memorandum of understanding, this flimsy two-page doc being applied. Meaning primarily, as soon as they’ve opened the strait, they get all of the entry to their frozen belongings with none constraint on how they spend it,” Rice mentioned. “Within the Obama-era deal, they might solely spend these frozen belongings on humanitarian issues — meals and medication. Now they will use it to fund their terrorist proxies.”
Vice President JD Vance waits, alongside U.S. President Donald Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, on the Buergenstock Resort Lake Lucerne, close to Stansstad, Switzerland, June 21, 2026.
Nathan Howard/Pool by way of Reuters
Rice additionally criticized the provisions concerning the Strait of Hormuz, the longer term unfreezing of Iranians belongings and the plan for the U.S. and Gulf companions “to develop a definitive, mutually agreed plan with no less than USD 300 billion for the reconstruction and financial improvement of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” because the memorandum states. U.S. officers say Iran won’t be able to impose tolls within the strait, even after 60 days, that Iran will solely be rewarded economically if it complies with the deal, and that the U.S. won’t contribute any cash to that $300 billion fund.
Karl requested Rice whether or not it is higher to have a deal somewhat than none: “Is not a weak peace settlement higher than a resumption of a conflict, which I do know you opposed from the beginning?”
“I oppose this conflict as a result of it was a silly conflict, and it was apparent that whenever you wage a silly conflict that each prior president had the knowledge to keep away from, that you simply had been going to finish up with both dangerous outcomes or worse outcomes,” Rice mentioned. “It was apparent for many years that the one option to resolve this drawback is thru diplomacy. And now we’re again to diplomacy with a far weaker hand. Sure, their army has been degraded, however Iran has now discovered they will use the Strait of Hormuz to carry us and the worldwide financial system hostage anytime they need.”
Rice, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations earlier than her tenure as nationwide safety adviser, mentioned the conflict general was a “strategic blunder.”
“Now we have suffered enormously. The American individuals have suffered. We have misplaced 13 servicemen and girls. Now we have paid over $50 billion of taxpayer cash for a conflict we by no means ought to have waged. The American client is paying greater than $50 billion in elevated prices. Our standing on this planet is weakened,” she mentioned. “And we have proven that when the USA, the best army on the face of the planet, and the Israeli military, the Israeli army, throw the kitchen sink at Iran, they will left — be left nonetheless standing, which weakens us globally.”
Whereas Israel and the USA began the conflict collectively, they don’t look like ending it on the identical web page. On Thursday, Vance chastised Israeli officers who had been publicly criticizing the settlement.
“Donald J. Trump is the one head of state in all the world who’s sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this second in time. And he occurs to be the top of state of the world’s superpower. If I used to be within the cupboard of the Israeli authorities, I won’t be attacking the one highly effective ally that I’ve anyplace left in all the world,” he mentioned at a White Home press briefing.
Rice mentioned she thought Vance’s assertion was “extraordinary” and “I am certain it shocked lots of people, notably in Israel.”
She mentioned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to “persuade many prior presidents to interact in conflict with Israel towards Iran.” Trump, she mentioned, was the primary to “take the bait,” however now, Rice mentioned Israel is worse off.
“What we have because of that conflict … is a strengthened Iran by way of its geopolitical stature within the area, not militarily conventionally within the brief time period, however its nuclear program is totally intact. There’s nothing in that settlement that requires that the nuclear materials, the mud, because the president likes to name it, will probably be faraway from Iran,” Rice mentioned. “So, the Israelis have suffered essentially the most as a result of now — you realize, this administration, in the event you take the president and the vice chairman’s phrases, has principally mentioned to Israel, ‘Your considerations should not ours.'”
