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Iran Nuclear Agreement Returns to Center Stage With Arrival of President Biden

The status and future of the Iran nuclear accord has returned to center stage with the ascent of President Joe Biden. Although the new chief executive and his foreign policy team have made no secret of their intent to return to the agreement, albeit with changes, it was not included in the pile of seventeen Day One executive orders that reversed a variety of actions by former President Donald Trump. At his confirmation hearing, Secretary of State nominee Anthony Blinken said the new administration would be conferring with Israel and Arab Gulf nations. But, unlike the Paris Treaty which merely requires a signature, the Iran agreement will require contentious negotiations with Tehran, which already has thrown down the gauntlet with a demand that all current sanctions on the Islamic Republic be lifted within the first 30 days of the Biden Administration. It also begs difficult consultations with allied nations from the European Union to Saudi Arabia to Israel. Observers see the American response to the Iranian demands as a barometer of the United States’ negotiating style and just how tough Team Biden will be on ancillary issues such as missile development.