The virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. (E.T.)
On 28 February, the U.S.-Israel launched their second war against Iran, seven months after the Twelve Day War of June 2025 in which Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran's nuclear facilities. In both cases, the U.S. and Israel claimed Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons as a motive. This presentation will offer reflections on the U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations that took place between the two wars, and reasons to believe they had reached a critical stage where a potential agreement appeared within reach. It will review the achievements in these nuclear negotiations prior to the outbreak of the 2026 war, and the reasons President Donald Trump again set diplomacy aside and chose instead to attack Iran. It also will the assess the broader political and strategic calculations behind this decision. Finally, what of the future: Will Iran seek the bomb? Once the war ends will the two countries be trapped in a prolonged cycle of unremitting confrontation, with significant implications for regional and global security, or might there be scope for renewed U.S.-Iran diplomacy?
About the speaker: Seyed Hossein Mousavian is a Visiting Research Collaborator with the SPIA Program on Science and Global Security. He retired in May 2025 after 15 years as a Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist at the Program. He served as Iran's Ambassador to Germany, Head of the Foreign Relations Committee of Iran's National Security Council, and as Spokesman for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the international community. He is currently working on a book on the rise and fall of the Iran nuclear deal, and is the author of six books, including A Middle East Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction (2020), Iran and the United States, An Insider's View on the Failed Past and the Road to Peace (2014), and Iranian Nuclear Crisis, A Memoir (2012).