India, April 9 -- More than six years after pulling the US out of the the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - the Iranian nuclear deal - during his first term as president, Donald Trump has signalled that he intends to finalise an understanding aimed at blocking Tehran's nuclear ambitions. JCPOA was finalised in 2015 by the US, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China; and European powers made several half-hearted attempts to revive the deal over the past four years. Trump's decision to pull out of the deal in 2018 also resulted in India being forced to stop purchases of Iranian crude because of the threat of secondary sanctions.

The Iran that finalised JCPOA in 2015 is very different from the one that is set to hold talks with...