{"id":39835,"date":"2022-05-19T08:06:24","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T16:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=39835"},"modified":"2022-05-19T08:06:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T16:06:24","slug":"the-politics-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/19\/the-politics-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Politics of the Iran Nuclear Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Hirsh reports<\/a> on the lingering toxic effects of Trump\u2019s foreign policy decisions, including the decision to renege on the nuclear deal. Biden\u2019s timidity on reversing Trump\u2019s policy has left many observers baffled:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision-making process in the administration is such that people who have the last word with the president are prioritizing domestic policy over foreign policy,\u201d said Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group, who is a former top aide to Robert Malley, the Biden administration\u2019s chief Iran negotiator.<\/i><\/p>\n

The result, Vaez said, was \u201ctragic\u201d for Biden and would come back to haunt him, especially with Iran edging toward potential nuclear breakout \u2013 the point at which the country has enough fissile material for a bomb. \u201cFor someone like him with so much foreign-policy experience to allow politics to play such a role is unbelievable.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s mishandling of the revival of the nuclear deal has loomed larger than some of his other foreign policy mistakes because it is such a high-profile issue, it was a major difference between Biden and Trump during the campaign, and the magnitude of Trump\u2019s failure was so great. It has also undermined Biden\u2019s claim to competence in matters of foreign policy, which his supporters assumed was one of his strengths. Rejoining the agreement is a no-brainer on the merits, so it has been discouraging to see the process drag on for more than a year when U.S. reentry should have been relatively straightforward. Vaez says that it is \u201cunbelievable\u201d that Biden is allowing domestic politics to play such a dominant role in the decision-making process, but it is unfortunately all too believable given the president\u2019s tendency to favor the status quo even when it was created by Trump. Add in political calculations during an election year, and you have a recipe for inaction and stagnation.<\/p>\n

Carl Bildt and Javier Solana are similarly mystified<\/a> by Biden\u2019s slow-walking approach:<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s puzzling that, after running on a return to the nuclear deal and promising that \u201cAmerica is back,\u201d Biden has been slow-walking diplomacy that US allies strongly support. The common refrain is that he is \u201cplaying it safe\u201d on Iran ahead of the upcoming midterms. But frankly, being the president under whose watch efforts to contain Iran\u2019s nuclear efforts succeeded would be a much bigger hit for Biden and the Democrats in advance of the 2024 elections.<\/i><\/p>\n

Read the rest of the article at SubStack<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Daniel Larison is a weekly columnist for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia<\/a>. He is former senior editor at<\/i> The American Conservative. He has been published in the<\/i> New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and<\/i> Culture11, and was a columnist for<\/i> The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Hirsh reports on the lingering toxic effects of Trump\u2019s foreign policy decisions, including the decision to renege on the nuclear deal. Biden\u2019s timidity on reversing Trump\u2019s policy has left many observers baffled: \u201cThe decision-making process in the administration is such that people who have the last word with the president are prioritizing domestic policy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-39835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"Biden and his advisers need to focus on the political downsides of being the president who let the nuclear deal expire on his watch."},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39835"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39837,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39835\/revisions\/39837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39835"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=39835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}