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And unlike what happened four years ago, the Iranian dossier was largely absent from the recent US election campaign. While Trump’s hard-line stance towards Tehran was clear during his tenure, statements made by Biden on the matter are still few and far between.
Trump adopted a policy toward Iran that was based primarily on economic sanctions, and the two countries’ relations, which have been broken for nearly forty years, have seen an increase in the level of tension since Trump took office in 2017, especially earlier this year after the assassination of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani by a US airstrike in Baghdad.
The US president re-imposed harsh sanctions on Tehran as part of a “maximum pressure” policy against it, which had a negative impact on the Iranian economy and the local currency exchange rate.
Trump considered that the agreement concluded during the era of his predecessor, Barack Obama, was not enough and sought to pressure the Islamic Republic to reach a “better agreement” from his point of view.
Iran rejected any new negotiations, emphasizing that it will continue to “resist” the sanctions and pressure.
He wrote: “We urgently need to change course”, considering that his predecessor’s policy ended in “dangerous failure” and brought Iran, from his point of view, “closer” to possessing a nuclear weapon.
The 2015 Vienna Agreement was primarily based on balancing Iran reducing its nuclear activities, in exchange for lifting much of the sanctions imposed.
Almost a year after the US withdrawal, Tehran refrained from committing to some of the terms of the agreement. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran increased its enrichment of uranium, but without reaching a level that would allow its use for military purposes.
Biden stated in his article his intention to propose that Tehran embark on a “credible path back to diplomacy.”
However, the president-elect stressed that he will be “strict” with Iran and will link any possible return to the nuclear deal with the return of Tehran to all its obligations.
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