Biden restores sanctions relief in attempt to salvage Iran nuclear deal

The Biden administration restored a sanctions waiver for Iran's nuclear program Friday, but the Iranian foreign minister says it won't be enough to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, The Washington Post reported.

The Trump administration withdrew from former President Barack Obama's 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018.

A senior State Department official said the Biden administration's decision to restore sanctions relief "is not a concession to Iran" or a "signal that we are about to reach an understanding" but that it will "enable some of our international partners to have more detailed technical discussions to enable cooperation that we view as being in our non-proliferation interests," CNN reported.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was less optimistic. "Lifting some sanctions in a real and objective manner could be interpreted as the good will that Americans talk about," he said Saturday but added that the Biden administration's waiver is "not sufficient."

Ongoing talks in Vienna temporarily adjourned Friday.

The Week contributor David Faris has argued that the negotiations are "almost certainly doomed" and that when they "inevitably collapse, they will entomb decades of delusion and leave the mangled edifice of American foreign policy exposed." Read more at The Week.