A new deal for Iran and the U.S.?

If an agreement isn’t reached soon, talks may not resume until after the midterms — by which time Iran may already have built a nuclear weapon

President Biden and Ebrahim Raisi.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images)

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Democratic nominee Joe Biden repeatedly promised to get the U.S. back into a renegotiated nuclear agreement with Iran, after former President Donald Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018. Painstaking negotiations appear to have reached a critical juncture this week, with the U.S. submitting a response to Iran's comments on the text of a final draft agreement. Here's everything you need to know about whether a new agreement will be signed, what is likely to be in it, and what it all means:

Why is a new agreement necessary?

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David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.