Then stepped up Tony Blinken, Biden's new secretary of state, to continue the new administration's maneuvers. To wit, Blinken stated "Tehran must resume complying with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal before Washington would do so." This sort of statement is a rather childish, you-go-first challenge. Blinken then explained that if Iran returns to the deal, Washington would seek to build what Blinken called a "longer and stronger agreement" that would deal with other "deeply problematic" issues. He did not name these, but Biden for his part has drawn attention to Iran's development of ballistic missiles and its support for proxy forces in countries such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
It took the Iranians no time at all to recognize this gambit for what it is, an effort to enlarge restrictions on Iranian military capacity beyond the scope of the original 2015 agreement. Almost immediately, Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, responded that the U.S. position was not practical and will not happen and then added in an op-ed in Foreign Affairs,"once a party leaves an agreement, then that party has no authority demanding others' compliance to that agreement."
The Iranians did come back with a more doable proposal to deal with the "who goes first" dilemma. Teheran proposed a timed, mutual U.S. and Iranian return to the original agreement. In an interview with CNN, the Iranian foreign minister said "both countries should synchronize their JCPOA-related moves under the supervision of the European Union" -- in other words, achieve the goal with a step-by-step coordinated process. The Biden administration said no to Zarif's offer, and sane minds, noting the rejection, could hear eerie Trump-like snickering in the surrounding ether.
Part IV -- Conclusion
We have already asked why Trump decided to act in such a malicious manner toward Iran. Now we can ask why Joe Biden has decided to mimic his predecessor and continue a callous, hard-line approach to that same country. As it turns out, the answer is not all that different. Biden is subject to the same lobby pressure from groups to which he has a demonstrated sympathy. Among these are some of the well known suspects mentioned above, but first and foremost are Israel and its Zionist supporters (a rundown of these can be found in a full-page ad in the 5 February 2021 New York Times).
We can also add one other grouping to this listvarious civil rights organizations who would use the moment to pressure Teheran to increase the level of civil liberties allowed in the country. However, as Behrooz Ghamari Tabriz, writing in Counterpunch notes, "It is a hard sell for those who are genuinely concerned with the question of human rights to ask the American government to be the agent of that change. So long as our government supports the region's most oppressive regimes, it is hard to imagine that it has any moral authority or political capital to spend on issues of human rights in Iran."
It is hard to know what exactly is going on inside Joe Biden's head on this issue. We can assume that it is nothing really analytical. His administration's actions have, so far, run counter to the other precedents he is laying down in the areas of international cooperation and leadership. They also go against logic. One can imagine no better way to move the Iranians toward nuclear weapons capability than the policies now being pursued. Until Biden acts, in terms of Iran, in the interests of achievable nuclear restraint and stability, that is in the real interests of the country he leads, rather than this or that interest group, he will carry around the residual chains of Donald Trump's miserable legacy.
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