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Barack Obama says US is ‘worse off’ than before war with Iran

Former President Barack Obama said the United States has emerged from its conflict with Iran “worse off” than before the war began in February, according to an interview that aired Friday. Speaking to NBC News before the dedication of his presidential center in Chicago, Obama offered a blunt assessment of the 15-week campaign.

“We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died. And it feels like we’re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off,” Obama told the outlet, according to a transcript published by The Guardian.

Obama, whose administration negotiated the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, said he was “very happy to see a ceasefire” and expressed hope that the agreement signed this week would hold. The former president directly criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal, which he said had previously prevented Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

“Under the JCPOA, Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons,” Obama said. He noted that Trump “pulled out of it, which caused then Iran to develop more nuclear capacity.”

The remarks come as Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the peace plan is “already bearing fruit for America,” pointing to falling gas prices and the destruction of Iran’s military capacity as evidence of a U.S. victory. The White House also confirmed that Vance had delayed a planned trip to Switzerland to lead new nuclear-focused talks with Tehran.

Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Friday that future negotiations must respect what he called the nation’s “red lines,” a likely reference to conditions involving a ceasefire in Lebanon. “If the enemy becomes excessive [in its demands], we have proven that we are ready to retaliate and will not hesitate to deliver a stinging response,” Ghalibaf was quoted as saying by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

Trump signed the memorandum of understanding with Iran on Wednesday at a dinner in the Palace of Versailles. Vance said at the White House that the president “believes in this deal, he is going to see it to completion, and if the Iranians don’t comply, we still have every single tool and point of leverage that we have today.”

Obama, speaking at the dedication of his presidential center, also reflected on what he described as a period of “disruption, polarization” in American democracy. He said he understands if people feel “our democracy, our civic habits and virtues, our shared understanding of how we treat each other has started to crumble.” He added that it is important that “we all play a part in assuring that our elected officials are accountable” — and that the work of sustaining those habits is not “something that I think we can afford to suggest is behind us.”