Bobby Ghosh, Columnist

Biden’s Call to Ease Iran Sanctions Fits a Bad Pattern

When it comes to the Middle East, the former vice president has a history of endorsing woolly and reckless ideas.

April 7, 2020 at 3:59 AM UTC

Bobby Ghosh is a senior editor in the digital weekend team. Previously, he was a columnist at Bloomberg Opinion, where he wrote mostly about international affairs and culture.

A lot of malarkey on the Middle East.
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

The most charitable explanation for Joe Biden’s call for the easing of sanctions on Iran is that it is a combination of virtue-signaling and opportunism, the standard political admixture prescribed by spin-doctors for any campaign season.

After all, the former vice president needs to embrace some of the positions of Bernie Sanders in order to finish off his sole surviving rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. He also needs to appease the extreme left of the party, where radicals such as Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argue that the Islamic Republic should get sanctions relief in order to deal with the coronavirus epidemic.