opinion
The Iran Nuclear Deal Is Dead.

Or Is it?
L military alliance with President Vladimir
Putin’s regime in Russia, while for State
Department spokesperson Ned Price,
ike the parrot in that wonderful
“the JCPOA is not on the agenda” and
Monty Python sketch, American
“hasn’t been for some time.” Very, very
and European diplomats have
negative, to be sure, but it still leaves the
been trying to persuade themselves
door to a future agreement ajar.

that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran isn’t
What can explain this reticence? In
dead. It’s just resting.

part, it’s the old negotiating tactic of
In the period since the 2018 U.S.

not showing your hand if you don’t
withdrawal from the Joint Compre-
absolutely need to; let the Iranians be
hensive Plan of Action — the technical
the ones to take the blame for the failure
name for the deal between Iran, the U.S.

of talks seems to be the idea here. Yet
and fi ve other world powers — it has
the Europeans are also a factor, in that
become painfully clear that the main
the EU remains wedded to the goal of
foreign policy achievement of former
a revived JCPOA, despite announcing
President Barack Obama’s administra-
a new round of sanctions on the Iranian
tion is demised, passed on, ceased to
regime after the protests erupted. As
be, expired, run down the curtain, no
long as the EU believes there is even the
more. In a word, dead.

faintest hope of a breakthrough with the
The diplomats know this, but they
mullahs, the U.S. is unlikely to place an
have been unwilling to make the
President Joe Biden delivers a speech to the nation in front of Independence
offi cial stamp upon its commander-in-
announcement, preferring instead to
Hall in Philadelphia on Sept. 1.

chief’s off -the-cuff comments.

claim at frequent intervals that a revived
This kind of ducking and weaving by
September. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna free Iran,” he
deal at negotiations that have dragged
told a group of activists displaying “Free Iran” signs. the west sends the signal to Tehran that it still has a role
on for more than a year in Vienna is “imminent.”
to play, by arriving at an outcome that western nations
Will that position change, now that amateur video of “They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon.”
So, is the Iran deal dead? Going by these comments badly want. To deliver on a deal, the regime has to
President Joe Biden declaring that the deal is “dead”
has surfaced? The answer, maddeningly, seems to be of Biden’s, one can only conclude that his answer is remain in power. Yet if our goal now — as Biden stated
both a yes and a no. He used the hardly ambiguous at the rally in California — is to “free Iran” and to off er
both yes and no.

Biden’s comments on the deal were not intended word “dead” to describe its status. But his remarks every assistance we can to the ordinary Iranians driven
for public consumption, and he uttered them a while also begged the question of whether something like by this goal, then we need to do the exact opposite.

ago — on Nov. 4 to be precise, at a campaign stop the Iran deal can truly be considered dead if this fact The robust sanctions that have been imposed on
numerous Iranian individuals, military organizations
in Oceanside, California, as voters headed to the cannot, or will not, be recognized in a public forum.

Other voices in Washington, D.C., have been and government agencies need to be amplifi ed by a
midterm elections. In the video, a woman with a
Persian accent can be heard asking the president similarly downcast on the prospects for a revival of the freeze on diplomatic contacts with the Iranians.

Foremost, this would mean formally ending the
off -camera whether he will declare the JCPOA dead. JCPOA without going as far as calling it “dead.” Back
in April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken confessed negotiations in Vienna to resurrect the JCPOA. Biden’s
“No,” he answered.

Pressed as to why, Biden replied that it was a that he was not “overly optimistic at the prospects of judgment that the deal is dead would thus become
“long story” and that there were “a lot of reasons.” actually getting an agreement to conclusion,” while in offi cial policy. And as well as ending the nuclear talks,
But he then went on to explicitly acknowledge that October, the U.S. envoy to Iran, Rob Malley, said that Western nations should suspend diplomatic contacts
the JCPOA is, in fact, “dead, but we’re not gonna the U.S. administration was not going to “waste time” by pulling their ambassadors out of Tehran while
pursuing a deal while the Tehran regime engaged in leaving lower-level staff in place to monitor the repres-
announce it.”
sion of the protests.

While the video showed only a small portion of their its brutal crackdown against protesters.

While it is perhaps too big of an ask that regime
After the video of Biden surfaced, it was unclear
encounter, it didn’t sound like Biden’s interlocutor was
particularly impressed. “We just don’t want any deals whether senior U.S. offi cials were bolstering his change should also become Western policy, there
with the mullahs,” she emphasized. “They don’t repre- comments or undermining them, as they insisted that should be less of an objection to helping the Iranians
no deal was possible in the present climate but did achieve their liberation themselves. The JCPOA is
sent us, they’re not our government.”
“Oh, I know they don’t represent you,” Biden not directly rule out such an arrangement in the future. dead. Let the Iranian regime follow in its path. ■
As a result, according to John Kirby of the National
replied. “But they have a nuclear weapon that they’ll
represent.” He then headed off , only to appear later Security Council, the administration’s focus has shifted Ben Cohen is a New York City-based journalist and
at a rally with a message of solidarity for the historic from the deal to “practical ways to confront Iran” over author who writes a weekly column on Jewish and
anti-regime protests that have raged across Iran since both its repression of the protests and its growing international aff airs for JNS.

By Ben Cohen
12 JANUARY 5, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT