US, Iran signal possible breakthroughs in nuke talks
The U.S. and Iran are signaling a possible breakthrough on discussions for both countries to return to the 2015 nuclear deal that former President Trump withdrew from in 2018. Ahead of the resumption of indirect talks between the two countries in Vienna this week, U.S. and Iranian officials are shuttling around the Middle East in a signal of close regional cooperation and an unprecedented easing of tensions between Iran and Gulf nations.
A delegation of senior Biden administration officials are meeting with leaders and senior officials in the U.A.E., Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The officials include the State Department’s top lawyer Derek Chollet, National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, and Joey Hood and Dana Stroul, the top Middle East officials from the State Department and Pentagon, respectively.
Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, said another key development is relative silence from Israel against the nuclear deal since senior officials met with the Biden team in Washington last week. “We’ve seen a kind of begrudging acceptance on the part of the Israelis that this is going to happen and that it’s foolhardy to continue to inveigh against it, it’s just going to antagonize the Biden administration even further,” she said
Both the Biden administration and Iran are feeling pressure to quickly achieve an agreement that would allow the two countries to return to the Obama-era deal from which former President Trump withdrew.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/552021-us-iran-signal-possible-breakthroughs-in-nuke-talks