Recently briefed on negotiations with Iran by senior Biden administration officials, senators in both parties said they doubt Iran will agree to any new deal to limit its development of nuclear weapons.
According to the senators, Iran is showing almost no willingness to reestablish the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), although the Biden administration has an offer on the table.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez is not optimistic there will be such a deal. He said that he sees no pathway forward although the Biden administration believes that strategically it makes sense to keep the offer on the table.
JCPOA, which was one of former President Obama’s biggest foreign policy accomplishments, placed significant restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, but Former President Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal.
Back in January, Washington was hoping, according to statements, and saying they were on the cusp of restoring the agreement, cautioning that Iran would need time to accept it.
Menendez believes that accepting a new accord is a divisive proposition within Iran’s political establishment, where an internal conflict exists, which makes it difficult to revive the agreement and is the reason why the senator believes there’s no clear pathway forward after four months of talks.
The lack of any serious interest in accepting the offer from the United States and its European allies by Tehran, however, means that one of President Biden’s top foreign policy priorities remains in limbo.
The Foreign Relations Committee’s senior member, Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, stressed that no one knows what the Iranians are thinking or whether they want a deal or not, but the ball now is really in the Iranians’ court since the US has put forward a proposal, Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute specializing in foreign policy and defense policy, added.
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