The groups — which include J Street, Indivisible, and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft — note that Biden himself, and many senior officials in his administration, have previously stated that Trump’s withdrawal from the deal was a “disaster”, according to Responsible Statecraft.
Some of these officials have also pointed out, the letter adds, that opponents of the deal pushed Trump to create domestic political poison pills — like blacklisting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — for the specific purpose of making it difficult for any successor to re-enter the deal.
“This is why it is all the more perplexing that your administration has allowed this ‘political move’ to stand in the way of a strategically vital renewal of the JCPOA,” they write.
The groups say Biden will ultimately be responsible for the JCPOA’s failure, as it’s just another way of “doubling down on Trump’s maximum pressure strategy,” which they call “a self-inflicted wound.”
“President Biden, we implore you to double down on negotiations and bring the Iran deal to the finish line before it’s too late,” said Nancy Parrish, Executive Director of Women’s Action for New Directions, another signatory of the letter.
Dylan Williams, J Street’s senior vice president for policy and strategy, also noted that a supermajority of Jewish American voters support the restoration of the agreement over the escalating nuclear crisis and regional insecurity brought on by Trump’s disastrous approach.
The previous nuclear deal was signed by Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States), Germany and the European Union in 2015.
US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and imposed new illegal sanctions on Tehran.
Since April last year, the Iranian negotiating team has been involved in marathon talks with the other remaining parties to the JCPOA – Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia – with the aim of bringing the US back into the deal and lifting its sanctions against Tehran.
However, the Vienna talks have been on hold since March as Washington insists on its refusal to undo its past wrongs through measures such as removing Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) from its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
The western parties of the JCPOA have tried to blame Iran for the pause in the Vienna negotiations while Iran has repeatedly announced readiness to reach a stable and long-lasting deal if the US is adherent to its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.
MP/PR