Dylan Williams, the vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy in the US, made the comments on diplomacy with Iran in an op-ed published in the American media The Hill on Wednesday.
Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal remains one of the worst foreign policy blunders in American history, but it’s one we now have a new opportunity to fix, he said.
President Joe Biden should not miss this chance to conclude his presidency with a major security win while assisting Vice President Kamala Harris in setting a popularly supported course for a more peaceful and stable Middle East, he noted.
He was advised by countless outside experts to immediately reverse Trump’s disastrous withdrawal from the agreement and diplomatically de-escalate tensions with Iran. As a candidate, Biden unequivocally promised to do so, the author noted.
"Yet upon taking office, the Biden administration dithered and delayed diplomacy, in many cases continuing and even expanding the disastrous approaches of its predecessor. Sanctions imposed by Trump in violation of the Iran deal were not only left in place but increased, further buttressing hardliners, while a lack of diplomatic urgency from the administration allowed the clock to run out on negotiating with the more willing partners of Rouhani’s reformist government."
Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash and the unexpected election of reform-oriented Masoud Pezeshkian as Iran’s next president has now opened another window for a new agreement to restore some of the most critical components of the JCPOA, Williams said.
Pezeshkian, a supporter of the Iran Deal at its creation in 2015, "has expressly opened the door to diplomacy" toward reviving the agreement’s core exchange of constraints on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief for Iran’s people, he stated.
MNA/IRN
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