Joe Biden’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, said during Senate confirmation hearings on Tuesday that the incoming administration is a “long ways” from reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.
Haines said that Biden “has indicated that if Iran were to come back into compliance, that he would direct that we do so as well. And I think, frankly, that we are a long ways from that.”
The Iranians have gradually violated their commitments under the JCPOA since 2019, one year after the Trump administration withdrew from the accord and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.
Biden has said he would lift sanctions on Iran if Tehran returns to compliance, and Iranian officials have made it clear they will be ready to do so in exchange for sanctions relief. But Haines’ comments suggest the Biden administration will not be rushing to revive the JCPOA.
One obstacle for Biden’s return to diplomacy with Iran will be Israel, and Israeli officials are not shy about their opposition to the revival of the JCPOA. Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said during his Senate hearings that the administration plans to consult with Israel and Arab allies, who also oppose the JCPOA, before returning to the deal.
Bet dollars to donuts war with Iran is more likely than lifting sanctions. Israel’s friends here call the shots. Just look at the folks Biden has picked for State.
. .from Blinken (SecState) testimony Q&A on Iran:
The Iran nuclear “break-out time” (baloney) has gone from a year to 3 or 4 months. . . The new administration is dedicated to a dialogue with Iran. . . .The Biden administration would seek to move toward a longer and stronger agreement with Iran. here
The Iran position is here
So he promised and now he fails us. First day. No surprise. Once a crazed hawk looking for wars, always so.
Haines said that Biden “has indicated that if Iran were to come back into compliance, that he would direct that we do so as well. And I think, frankly, that we are a long ways from that.”
“Biden has said he would lift sanctions on Iran if Tehran returns to compliance, and Iranian officials have made it clear they will be ready to do so in exchange for sanctions relief.”
Iran says they are ready and that witch says “we are a long ways from that”. Which part of “ready” did she not understand?
It’s not Iran’s job to return to compliance FIRST.
It was the US which violated the deal first, and pressured other regimes to violate it as well.
Iran has responded in a slow and measured way with “OK, if you’re not holding up our end, we are no longer bound to hold up ours” measures.
If the US wants to go back to the deal, the ball is in its court, not Iran’s.
I agree. I was commenting more about Haines’ apparent difficulty in recognizing Iran’s willingness to go back into compliance and not who should comply first.
The US doesn’t really want to go back to the deal which it never adhered to even when it was nominally apart of.
So they will repeat the mantra of “Iran must return to the negotiating table.” for the next four years, assured that is something Iran will not do.
Great comment Mr.Knapp!
But unfortunately the neocons that have hijacked US foreign policy for the past 25 years won’t play ball.
To them war is the only solution, game on!
Well, given that Haines unnecessarily added an S to “way”, I doubt she’s thinking clearly or logically.
She must have talked to body Netanyahu before making that statement…!
Israel is not the problem—amerikans are
“amerikans have been liars and braggarts for 3 centuries”. Daniel Boorstin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5yNoxV8dag&pbjreload=101
I’ve been asking online news/comment sites for years why it’s fine for the USA to have 6,000 nuclear warheads, for it to be spending over a trillion dollars upgrading its nuclear weapons of mass destruction, for my own UK government to possess a Trident system and to spend billions of pounds replacing it with more effective ways to inflict mass deaths – but that for Iran to even hint at developing its own nuclear weapons means its population must be attacked with lethal sanctions.
Perhaps someone here will explain.