By Bonnie Kristian
After weeks of rebuffs and stagnation, some progress in returning the United States and Iran to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, may finally be afoot.
Washington and Tehran recently began indirect talks mediated by other world powers in Vienna and organized into two working groups. One is focused on bringing Iran back into compliance with the pact’s limits on its nuclear activities, and one is exploring how the United States can lift the sanctions on Iran imposed or reimposed in the three years since former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal.
The move into working-level talks is great news. Yet the situation is a bit more complicated than it immediately seems, and not only because it now must weather the concurrent crisis surrounding a blackout at an Iranian nuclear site which Tehran blames on Israel. The larger issue for U.S.-Iran engagement is that the Biden administration is still insisting Iran return to full compliance with the JCPOA before the United States does the same. That will prove a significant and possibly insurmountable impediment to a negotiated resolution unless both countries can figure out a way to save face.
This piece was originally published in The National Interest on April 17, 2021. Read more HERE.