Shortly after the signing of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus the European Union and Germany (P5+1) in July 2015, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) traveled to Tehran in October of that year. In the agreement, Iran had committed to limiting the use of nuclear power to purely civilian purposes and to refrain from building a nuclear bomb. In the course of this slow political rapprochement, Steinmeier hoped to persuade Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to contribute to a political solution to the Syrian conflict.  However, this hope was dashed. The nuclear agreement was unilaterally terminated by the USA in 2018.