Ideological representations in Political Discourse of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA): The Analysis of Speeches by presidents of Iran and the United States (a Case Study) A Systemic Functional Approach

On 14 July 2015, Iran and six world powers (including the United States) after two years of negotiations, achieved a deal on Iran`s nuclear program. This deal which is famous as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was the end point of several years of international sanctions against Iran. The present study is an analysis of different representations of the nuclear deal by presidents of Iran and the United States. This paper is an attempt to apply Halliday`s functional model in explanation of ideological representations. The analysis compares and contrasts the transitivity structure in the first official statement of the presidents of Iran and the United States after agreement. The results of the analysis show that while Obama concentrates on doings, Rouhani focuses on attributing and identifying. Some participants are foregrounded and some are backgrounded. Speakers by using persuasive techniques, try to have a positive self-representation and negative other-representation.