The Biden administration rejects “maximum pressure” diplomacy with Iran

Iranian officials have called for an end to the economic sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump on their country. His move was widely seen as a violation of the terms of an agreement that UN inspectors say is working to maintain restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. Out of anger at the sanctions, Iran has begun enriching uranium to levels higher than the agreement allows. Meanwhile, regime hardliners view the new diplomacy with the United States as a dead end. On Tuesday, a law barring UN inspectors from entering Iranian nuclear sites was supposed to go into effect – a move that is sure to increase tensions with the West. But the weekend of shuttle diplomacy by the head of the United Nations atomic agency appears to have created some breathing space. Under the vague terms of the deal announced on Sunday, Iran is still ending the implementation of what is known as the Additional Protocol, which imposes monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but it will continue to allow what Rafael Grossi, the head of the agency, called the “necessary monitoring and verification” of Iran’s nuclear program. My colleague Karim Fahim explained. “These consultations are underway now,” Grossi told reporters in Vienna, and I think this technical understanding is doing just that, so that other political consultations can take place at other levels. Last week, the Biden administration effectively halted the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign by signaling its willingness to engage in informal talks on Iran with European allies. It would be the start of a delicate diplomatic dance that would design a dance for Iran to curtail some of its nuclear activities along with sanctions relief. There is no clear timetable for any of this, but a path toward reconciliation has opened, and the Biden administration has already taken small technical steps at the United Nations to help reset the schedule. They have lifted restrictions on Iranian diplomats in New York and rescinded the Trump administration’s 2020 assertion – which had until then been rejected by European allies of the United States – that all UN sanctions against Iran were in effect. Glimpses of thawing can be seen more broadly in South Korea’s decision on Monday to unfreeze a large amount of Iranian funds withheld in its banks due to US financial sanctions, but there is a lot of opposition in both Washington and Tehran. Iran’s parliament condemned on Monday after Grossi’s departure the new deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The speaker of parliament even called for the prosecution of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his allies, whom he described as “opponents and opponents.” Biden’s domestic opponents view the current course as a misguided ceding influence over the Iranian regime. The ayatollah only understands strength. “It led in response to the Iranian threat that protected the American people from its terrorism and supported the Jewish state of Israel,” former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the far-right Washington Free Bacon newspaper on Thursday. “Adopting the European Union’s model of adaptation would guarantee Iran a path to a nuclear arsenal.” , During a press call on Monday hosted by the European Leadership Network. “You have two governments that would have loved to take back [nuclear deal] The status quo with one click if they can deal with parliamentary opposition that reflects broader political resistance to the deal. The Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign may have caused heavy economic losses. But the reimposition of US sanctions has failed to achieve many of Pompeo and Trump’s stated goals: Did not deter Tehran’s proxies in the Middle East from carrying out hostilities in the region; the United States and its partners do not view Extracting more concessions from the regime than was achieved in 2015; Iran is theoretically closer to pushing for a nuclear weapon than it was before Trump took office. ” Leverage only makes sense if you use it at the right time and for Washington at the moment, the power card is exhausted To some extent, “Eli Giranmayh of the European Council on Foreign Relations said WorldView today during the same call, adding that the Iranian regime was able to” retool “its economy under the sanctions and” insulate itself from economic collapse as advocates of maximum pressure had hoped. ” “Not in the form of Trump’s sanctions,” Fayez told WorldView today, but rather, “the now demonstrated ability of the United States to turn on and off the switch on its own to have a significant impact on the Iranian economy. This leverage will be present in a year from now or in two years from now, whenever the need arises. ”