https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/01/27/biden-iran-nuclear-deal-challenge/
There’s probably no country in the world outside the United States that was more affected by the November election than Iran. President Biden’s victory and entry into the White House was expected to mark a major shift in United States strategy toward the regime in Tehran. After weathering the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign, Iranian officials hoped for a change in the geopolitical winds and some economic relief. Biden and his administration say they want to undo the diplomatic harm caused by former president Donald Trump’s unilateral reimposition of sanctions on Iran, which happened over the objections of European partners. Along with rejoining the Paris climate accord, salvaging the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump abrogated would demonstrate the Biden administration’s commitment to multilateral diplomacy with long-standing allies. The Biden camp also says Trump’s hard-line tactics failed to achieve their stated goal of curbing Iran’s malign activities abroad and drove it to amass a larger stockpile of enriched uranium than before Trump took office. But a return to the status quo that existed before Trump’s term looks tricky. Although Biden is committed to re-engagement with Iran, his aides have yet to indicate clearly when and how, suggesting that the ball is in Iran’s court. At his confirmation hearing last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States would wait until it was convinced that Tehran was scaling back its revived enrichment operations and returning once more to compliance with the pact.
The U.S. bailed on the Iran Nuclear Deal and further punished Iran by placing acts of war level sanctions as payment for the country’s total compliance. Iran thereafter kept to the terms of the agreement in the vain hope that the other parties could get around the American secondary sanctions on them. Essentially, Iran was getting nothing out of the deal. So, they slowly started to go out of compliance, specifically telling the other parties and international observers what they were doing. Now, the U.S. preposterously wants Iran to go back into compliance as a condition for the U.S. just talking with them?
“The administration should begin by unconditionally removing, with full effect, all sanctions imposed, reimposed, or relabeled since Trump took office,” wrote Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
I have no problem with this. It was wrong of Trump to break the deal, then reimpose sanctions when Iran was in compliance. It damaged our reputation as trustworthy and needlessly harmed the Iranian people. Neither do I think additional conditions should be made at this time. Rejoin the original JCPOA, stop the sanctions, and move on from there.