The Biden administration’s aspirations of an Iran Deal revival may be fading. This week, it has become apparent that efforts to resuscitate the ill-fated nuclear accord have reached an impasse. Senior EU diplomat Josep Borrell said that the latest confab between American and Iranian diplomats in Vienna “is not converging, it is diverging.”
Well, that’s a relief.
Many in the foreign-policy establishment contend that this deal is the least terrible of a set of execrable options. Don’t buy this narrative. The hastily conceived entente is not preferable to having no deal. It will only bolster the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, nourishing the mullahs hankering for jihadi adventurism, raising the risk of Middle East–wide conflict, and threatening Israel, our closest ally in the region. The paltry nuclear restrictions will sunset in a few years regardless, which will precipitate a regional arms race.
Those who argue that this deal will buy us time and enable us to focus on great-power competition with Russia and China are deluding themselves. This softer second iteration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) would do the opposite. It will further destabilize an already tumultuous region and deepen Beijing’s influence in the Persian Gulf and Central Asia.
While Congress may be powerless to stop this from coming to fruition, voters can still voice their discontent at the ballot box. Initially, one could argue that the deal might be an electoral boon for Democrats, but with all the negative coverage it’s received, it’s no wonder the Biden administration may want to cease its efforts until after the November midterm elections. Its quixotic foreign-policy fantasies will have to wait.
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