Iran is Joe Biden’s problem now
Will he jump back into the nuclear deal?
By Roger McShane: Middle East editor, The Economist
IT MAY HAVE looked as though John Kerry had the most difficult task in the negotiations that led to the nuclear deal with Iran in 2015. As he tried to nail down the terms of the agreement, America’s secretary of state at the time grew so frustrated with his Iranian counterpart that he threatened to walk away from the talks. Their shouting matches became the stuff of legend.
Yet a reasonable case can be made that Joe Biden had a harder job. After the details had been thrashed out, the then vice-president had to sell the deal to Congress. Democrats were sceptical of the accord, under which Iran curbed its nuclear programme and agreed to rigorous inspections in return for the lifting of international sanctions. Republicans were dead against it. In the end, neither the House nor the Senate supported it—but they did not block it either. Mr Biden had succeeded.
