As the nuclear negotiations between the world powers and Iran approach a denouement, the Biden administration is turning up the heat on … Donald Trump!? Facing a Republican clamor against reviving the 2015 deal, the White House is keen to reframe the discussion in Washington about the talks in Vienna by blaming the previous president for having ill-advisedly pulled out of the agreement.
Twice last week, State Department and White House spokespeople deflected journalists’ questions about the negotiations to whale on Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Jen Psaki, the administration’s press secretary, portrayed it as the root of all the Islamic Republic’s malign activities: “None of the things we’re looking at now — Iran’s increased capability and capacity, the aggressive actions that they have taken through proxy wars around the world — would be happening if the former president had not recklessly pulled out of the nuclear deal with no thought as to what might come next.”
As a Beltway political tactic, this is shrewd: It gives President Joe Biden a ready-made excuse for the two likeliest outcomes of the talks. If the administration makes significant concessions in order to revive the JCPOA — such as agreeing to lift some economic sanctions before Iran has returned to full compliance with its terms — then the White House can claim Trump’s hasty pullout left it with no good options. If, as seems more likely, the talks fail and the Islamic Republic continues to enrich uranium toward weapons-grade levels, then it was Trump’s fault for removing the restraints imposed by the original deal.
