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Eli Lake

So Far, Biden’s Iran Policy Isn’t Trump’s — or Obama’s

The president’s defense of the 2015 nuclear deal includes an acknowledgment  of its flaws.

Wendy Sherman returning from Iran negotiations in 2015. 

Wendy Sherman returning from Iran negotiations in 2015. 

Photographer: Brendan Smialowski-Pool/Getty Images Europe

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When it comes to President Joe Biden’s Iran policy, the safest thing to say is that it’s a work in progress.

On the one hand, the Biden administration is trying to quietly induce Iran to re-enter negotiations over the 2015 nuclear accord the previous president abandoned in 2018. On the other, the administration authorized air strikes last week in Syria against facilities it said were associated with Iranian-backed militias that launched rocket attacks last month against a U.S. base in northern Iraq.