For months, President Joe Biden has given the impression that he is prepared to play hardball with Iran over its nuclear program. As the world powers have negotiated with the Islamic Republic to revive the 2015 agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the U.S. has maintained that the theocratic regime in Tehran would get no relief from sanctions until it returns to compliance with the deal’s terms.
The Biden administration also let it be known that it had reviewed a range of military options to prevent Iran from producing a nuclear weapon. When Tehran ignored the admonition and ramped up its uranium enrichment capacity, the U.S. took its tough talk up a notch, saying fresh sanctions would be imposed if the negotiations in Vienna to restore the deal didn’t produce results.
The objective of the escalating threats was to get the Iranians to blink. But it is Biden’s resolve that now seems to be weakening. The U.S. State Department announced on Friday that it was waiving some sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program, apparently to induce some reciprocal concession from Tehran.
