Whether in the Oval Office conducting foreign policy or at Trump Tower overseeing his real estate empire, President Donald Trump prizes the “art of the deal” as the way to get things done. But while international attention is focused on Trump’s effort to secure peace between Russia and Ukraine, Trump has his eye on another prize: the negotiation of a new nuclear agreement with Iran.

Trump’s first-term policy toward Iran involved a “maximum pressure” campaign of crippling sanctions targeting Iran’s oil and gas export economy. Withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord negotiated by the Obama administration, Russia, China, and the European Union, Trump sought to use new sanctions to push Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, back to the negotiating table. It didn’t work out.