Last Thursday, negotiators met in Switzerland to discuss nuclear advancements and came to a detailed agreement looking to be finalized by the end of June. The document outlines a reduction in sanctions against Iran in return for a decrease of nuclear weapon development in Iran.
IU distinguished professor in history, Central Eurasian studies, and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies Jamsheed Choksy said he believes this agreement will benefit the U.S. in the long run if it’s eventually signed and implemented.
“It will progress ?normalizing relations with Iran,” Choksy said. “For one, international tensions would deescalate and tensions between the U.S. and Iran will deescalate. For two, people will be able to work together more closely.”
One thing Choksy expects to happen if the agreement is finalized is more partnerships through academia. Previously, IU-Purdue University Indianapolis and Iran had an engineering partnership.
Iran sent undergraduates in engineering to IUPUI to study for two years, and they then studied for two more years in Iran to complete school with a joint degree from IUPUI and their school in Iran.
With the new agreement, more programs like this will likely exist at IU, Choksy said.
“If this works out, what this means is Iranian students, undergraduate and graduate, could come to IU, and IU students could end up going to Iran,” ?Choksy said.
He also said there is benefit for those who might not plan to go to Iran.
“For those that never go, nonetheless, they would have contact with people from that country,” Choksy said. “The intellectual, personal and cultural horizons of IU students would increase. Also, one never knows where one’s future is going to take them.”
Though it’s hard to say exactly what caused international forces to make an agreement with Iran, Choksy proposes it was all parties being willing to work together and not wanting further tension.
He also said both American and Iranian public opinion polls show the public no longer wants to go to war over this issue and the majorities in both countries want there to be good relations between both countries again. This public pressure has caused politicians to move, Choksy said.
The agreement is not set in stone at this moment, but the outline is extensively detailed and both Iranian President Ali Khamenei and President Obama have publicly stated they will fulfill their end of the deal, ?Choksy said.
“The situation is more hopeful than it has ever been before,” Choksy said.
Professor of international law and diplomacy at the IU Maurer School of Law and in the School of Global and International Studies Feisal Istrabadi said he agrees this move is positive, but caution should still be used.
“A deal that substantially impairs Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons is in the interests of the entire international community,” Istrabadi said in an IU press release. “It appears that the negotiators are headed in that direction. As a matter of U.S.-Iran relations, any improvement and deescalation of tensions between the U.S. and Iran is positive. Still, we have yet to see the details of a final agreement, so caution is appropriate.”
Choksy said he encourages IU students and staff to become more informed on the issue by staying on top of the news, but also by studying Iranian politics and culture. He said with Iran being an important political country in terms of resources and location, it will be to IU’s best interests to extend relations.
“IU has contacts all over the world and has been branching out,” Choksy said. “I certainly see IU taking advantage of this to the maximum and best impact for faculty and students to establish intellectual and educational relationships with Iran.”
