Iran Negotiations Need Clear End Date for Any Agreement

Time is the United States’s greatest adversary as nuclear negotiations with Iran resume, but it is not too late to control the clock.

Tehran is likely to draw out talks, claiming good-faith cooperation while buying time to continue advancing toward nuclear weapons capability. With little leverage and diminished credibility, but desperate to at least pause Iran’s nuclear program, the Biden administration has signaled it might accept an agreement even more lopsided than the original Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Rather than keep saying, as it has for months, that “the ball is in Iran’s court,” the White House should stop letting Tehran dictate the pace of diplomacy. Now it must impose conditions on the talks, starting with a clear deadline for Iran to reenter the existing deal…

Blaise Misztal and Jonathan Ruhe are vice president for policy and director of foreign policy, respectively, at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.

Originally published in The Hill.