Burns: Implementation key to Iran nuclear deal
The first year of implementation of the Iran nuclear deal will be especially critical to ensuring its success and durability over the long haul, former US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns tells Al-Monitor.
Former US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who led the secret US diplomacy with Iran, told Al-Monitor that implementing the Iran nuclear deal the first year will be critical to ensuring its durability.
The parties “have got to establish a solid track record of implementation,” said Burns in an interview with Al-Monitor July 24.
If over that year there is solid execution of the accord and swift action to reverse any breaches or tests of ambiguities, that will help build confidence and insulate the deal from any attempts by would-be spoilers to derail it, and deepen stakeholders' investment in the deal, including by the new US administration that comes into office in 2017.
“The Iranians will inevitably test the provisions of the deal, and that’s why a rigorous commitment to execution is so important for the US and our partners right from the start,” said Burns, now president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
