A Deal at Any Price?

A senior State Department official said in a briefing I attended that although talks were weeks away from concluding, Iran’s nuclear program continues advancing as we speak. So if a deal isn’t signed quickly, it may no longer be relevant — the Iranians will be so close to a bomb that no deal could ensure they stay below the nuclear threshold.

So over the weekend, the administration waived several sanctions on Iran. The Americans had started from the position that sanctions would only be lifted at the end of the negotiations, but are now explaining that lifting the sanctions is itself part of the negotiating process.

“The sanctions waived were about being able to ship out enriched uranium and spent fuel, and help for it,” said Dennis Ross, distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute. “Both could be relevant if there is a deal,” he told me. “Indeed, each would be necessary. But each could be useful for nonproliferation purposes. There is no economic payoff.”

Richard Goldberg, senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), argued that these are significant strategic actions “that demonstrate a doubling down on the fatal flaws of the JCPOA.”