Biden is right about returning to the nuclear deal with Iran

AS we were preparing this article, officials in the Vienna talks were reported to be looking forward to the United States and Iran returning to the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCAP), better known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, with “cautious optimism.” A new agreement may possibly be realized by the end of this week.

During the last election campaign in the US, then presidential candidate Joe Biden called ex-President Trump’s withdrawal from the JCAP a mistake. It may be recalled that as vice president, Biden presented the JCAP to the US Congress as a landmark accomplishment of the Obama administration, which indeed it was. It reined in Iran’s ambition to be a nuclear weapon state. The warming up of relations between the US and Iran signaled the reduction of conflict and tension in the Middle East. The foreign ministers of the two countries were in a huddle for weeks, negotiating the arrangement along with those of the other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany. In the course of the negotiations, President Obama and President Hassan Rouhani had a meeting, the first between leaders of the two countries since the hostage crisis in the wake of the Iranian Revolution that drove a seemingly permanent wedge in their relations.