The political scientist called the potential abandonment of the nuclear program "fatal" for Iran.

Iran's potential abandonment of its nuclear program, which the United States insists on in order to sign a new agreement between the countries, is seen by Tehran as undesirable and could become "fatal" for the state. This was stated on April 16 in an interview with Izvestia by senior lecturer at the Higher School of Economics, researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Lukyanov.

On this day, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that an agreement with the United States is possible only if Washington stops insisting on the elimination of Iran's uranium enrichment program. According to him, this topic is not subject to discussion.

"As the experience of the DPRK on the one hand and Libya on the other hand has shown, only the possession of nuclear weapons can become a reliable guarantee of non-interference by external actors in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. And in these circumstances, abandoning the nuclear program is seen by the Iranian leadership as undesirable and fatal," the political scientist said.

The complexity of the negotiation process lies in the fact that the parties must compromise, that is, on mutual accessibility, Lukyanov stressed.

"All the same, the lack of depth of strategic trust between the parties should be taken into account. Therefore, Iran will persuade through the mouths of its various speakers about the need to include third countries in this negotiation process that can act as guarantors of compliance with the agreement," the expert stressed.

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Tehran is capable of putting its program on a military track in a few weeks.

According to him, Russia and China may be proposed for this role, rather than Western countries — they will not be considered in the appropriate capacity due to loss of trust.

The political scientist also noted that Israel is a party that benefits from a negative outcome of the negotiations.

"This is, of course, primarily about the current Israeli military and political leadership, which continues to insist on the need for a comprehensive strike on Iran's nuclear infrastructure. A successful outcome of the negotiations is seen as extremely unfavorable for Israel and does not meet the long—term security interests of the State of Israel," he concluded.

The nuclear deal was signed in 2015 by Iran, Russia, the United States, Britain, France, China and Germany. It implied the lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions and in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program. In 2018, American leader Donald Trump signed a decree withdrawing the United States from the deal, and also re-imposed sanctions on Iran. Tehran, in turn, responded by phasing out a number of obligations stipulated in the agreement.

At the end of March 2025, Trump threatened Iran with a military attack and secondary duties if Tehran did not conclude an agreement with Washington on the nuclear program.

On April 12, the delegations of Iran and the United States held the first round of talks in Muscat, the meeting focused on the Iranian nuclear program and American sanctions. The parties agreed to continue contacts on April 19 to discuss a possible agreement.

On April 16, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia could become one of the guarantors of the agreement between Iran and the United States on the Iranian nuclear program, but this would depend on the further course of negotiations between Washington and Tehran.