Reseal The Deal: Re-Enter the JCPOA

Joe Biden's slow walk on the Iran Deal threatens a crisis

It was 2015, and debate was raging over the agreement between the P5+1 (the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France, plus Germany) and Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA). As the arguments roiled on, a disturbing element was introduced, not by the opponents of the agreement, but by its supporters.

With increasing frequency, statements advocating for the JCPOA were being prefaced with “The Iran Deal is not perfect, but…” This retreat from reality only became more pronounced as the deal came under intense fire after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. It continued unabated after Trump unilaterally, and with no justification, pulled out of the JCPOA, creating the crisis that we are contending with now.

As a result, even Democrats who spoke in support of the JCPOA were reinforcing the message of Iran hawks and proponents of regime change and endless war. They were wrong to do so, as they acted out of their lack of political courage and, in most cases, complete ignorance of the Iran deal’s contents and provisions.

Of course the deal is not perfect, from anyone’s point of view. What deal ever is? But the JCPOA was an astonishing feat of international diplomacy. It was an agreement that the US, Russia, China, France, Germany, AND Iran could all sign on to. That, in itself, is an amazing feat of diplomacy in age where it is almost impossible to even find bilateral agreement among allies, let alone among a set of adversaries and competitors like that one.

But more than that, the JCPOA was a landmark agreement where Iran agreed to unprecedented restrictions and intrusive inspections far beyond what any other country has ever done. The idea that this has been criticized by Trumpian Republicans as “the worst deal ever” and that so many Democrats have been either hostile to the deal or apologetic about their support reveals a profound distortion of the deal’s contents and the context of an international system that makes what Iran agreed to so extraordinary.

In 2015, Matt Duss and I put together a paper taking on the arguments against the JCPOA and demonstrating that they were being made in bad faith, at best, and were outright lies at worst. I’ve reposted it at ReThinking Foreign Policy, and I hope you’ll look it over and share it widely.

Over the course of the past six years, even many of the JCPOA’s most fervent supporters have stopped making the argument that this deal was a good one from the perspective of the United States, its allies, and the cause of nuclear non-proliferation. We need to remind the public of the merits of the deal, if there is to be any hope of President Biden re-entering the JCPOA, and diverting the U.S. from its ill-fated and foolhardy attempt to unjustifiably wring even more concessions out of Iran before it will re-enter a deal we never should have left in the first place. Such negotiations can take place after the deal is reinstated.

The moment couldn’t be more urgent. Let’s recall that even Trump administration officials agreed that Iran had been abiding by the JCPOA and that it was in the United States’ best interests to stick with the deal. Israeli security and intelligence officials agreed with those assessments too, breaking with their self-interested and corrupt prime minister in doing so.

But Trump broke the agreement, doing grave damage to the long-standing tradition of U.S. administrations sustaining the agreements their predecessors, including political opponents, had made. U.S. allies may be relieved that Joe Biden, a saner man, is now in charge, but his inaction is amplifying Trump’s betrayal. We in the U.S. cannot claim that Trump was somehow anomalous and irresponsible if a former vice president and a man who has been a powerful figure in the Senate for numerous decades does not reverse Trump’s actions.

For the people of Iran, nothing has changed. Trump’s unilaterally imposed sanctions—which were, let’s not forget, first imposed by Trump while Iran was still complying with the JCPOA—remain fully in place. Biden has offered no relief to the Iranian people, despite his campaign promises to do just that. All this while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage.

How do you think people around the world react to that?

The most bizarre part is that it is clear that the period between the JCPOA’s acceptance in 2015 and its abrogation by Trump in 2018 was far more stable than the period since then.

Moreover, the pull away from the JCPOA is largely powered by Israel, Saudi Arabia, and their closest supporters in Washington, including in Congress. The goal of these parties is regime change in Iran. That’s why they opposed the JCPOA from the start, and why they even said out loud that they were more concerned that Iran would abide by the deal than that they would break it.

There are reasons for Biden’s reluctance to re-enter the JCPOA. He has already put forth an ambitious plan for pandemic and economic relief (even if it was a mere band-aid, it was an expensive one), and he is working to put together an equally ambitious plan for infrastructure and other reforms. With a narrow majority in the House of Representatives and an even split in the Senate, the president cannot afford to anger powerful Senate Democrats like Bob Menendez, Chris Coons, and Ben Cardin.

Those are just a few of the Senate Democrats who have made it clear that Biden forging ahead on Iran without getting them on board will have consequences. And those consequences could cost Biden the domestic agenda he has clearly, and understandably, prioritized.

I say “understandably,” but that should not imply “justifiably.”

This can easily explode in Biden’s face, and that explosion could lead to war in the Persian Gulf, with the death, destruction, and global impact that implies. With Iranian elections coming up in June, hardliners are poised to capitalize on the desperate situations with the sanctions and the gravely wounded economy under the moderate Hassan Rouhani, whose term will have ended. Still, the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made it clear that his policy is to restore the JCPOA as it was before Trump pulled out. So all hope is not lost after the election.

Right now, the pressure Biden is feeling is from the hawks. To a large extent that is the result of the weak defense of the JCPOA by its supporters in Congress. We can change that.

Click on these links to call your senator, and your representative as well. Tell them that the proper action here is for us to re-enter the agreement we broke in bad faith. Remind them that if Iran does not then come back into compliance themselves, the U.S. can reimpose sanctions, and would have much more support from our European allies in doing so. Most of all, remind them that these sanctions are hurting the people of Iran, not the hardline elements in the Iranian government.

And click here to sign a petition calling on President Biden to re-enter the JCPOA immediately.

More events for “Except for Palestine”

On Tuesday April 6 at 5 PM eastern, Marc Lamont Hill and I will be discussing our book at an event hosted by Jewish Voice for Peace. We will be joined by Rebecca Vilkomerson, Sandra Tamari, and Dr. Samia Shoman. Click here to register for the event.

On April 19, at 12 PM easter, Marc and I will be hosted by Rutgers University’s Center For Security, Race and Rights for a talk about our book. Click here to register for the event.

We’ve already done a whole slew of events around the book, and I want to thank everyone who has supported us and bought the book. You can find a list of past events, interviews, podcasts, and reviews, all with links, at ReThinking Foreign Policy.

Recent Articles

Three pieces since the last newsletter I put out, all of them published at The New Arab.

Most recently, I followed up on an article in Jewish Currents where I was quoted on a new group that represents the latest effort to market Israel to liberals. This time, the hook is to set boundaries of criticism and to exercise criticism of both U.S. and Israeli policies within those boundaries. The JC article is linked in the next section. My piece, “A new effort to sell Israel to American liberals” can be found here.

I also offered a quick take last week on the Israeli elections, and nothing since that time has caused me to re-evaluate things. Check out “Israeli elections: The view from Washington,” here.

Finally, if anyone thought that Gregory Meeks might at least offer some relief from the radically pro-Israel Eliot Engel now that Meeks has replaced Engel as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I’ve got some bad news for you. I explain in “US lawmaker Meeks shows his true colours on Palestine,” here.

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