Former US President Barack Obama. Photo: Collected

WASHINGTON, United States, June 14, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Barack Obama said it was 
unrealistic to expect that any deal between US President Donald Trump and 
Tehran would mark a "significant improvement" over his own nuclear pact 11 
years ago.

In interview excerpts released Sunday on ABC News talk show "This Week," the 
former president also suggested it was better to negotiate a deal that falls 
short of all of Washington's requirements in order to avoid an outright war.

"It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly 
different or a significant improvement from the deal that we had in the first 
place," Obama said, referring to 2015's landmark pact that Trump abandoned.

Obama said his own deal "had worked for a long stretch of time before... the 
United States pulled out of it."

US and Israeli forces sparked the Middle East war in late February when they 
launched strikes against Iran. For months Trump has bandied about a potential 
peace deal with the Islamic republic, but that country's leaders have yet to 
sign on.

Trump has stressed the deal, which he says would forever block Iran's ability 
to produce a nuclear weapon and would lead to the immediate opening of the 
blockaded Strait of Hormuz, could be signed on Sunday.

Tehran has not confirmed it will yet sign a deal, saying that for now there 
was "no point" in peace talks with the United States.

Obama said the troubled progress of a new US-Iran deal is a reminder that 
Washington can not "just bully our way or bomb our way to solutions" instead 
of engaging in comprehensive diplomacy.

"You'd think we would have learned that lesson by now," he said.