Biden adviser suggests rejoining Iran deal quickly

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is eyeing an urgent restoration of the international nuclear deal with Iran as a first step to deal with a range of threats from that country, new national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday, suggesting a faster timeline than the administration has previously outlined.

Mr. Sullivan did not mention Mr. Biden’s oft-stated precondition that Iran make the first move by rolling back nuclear activities to come back into compliance with terms of the 2015 deal. Iran is closer to building a bomb now than it was when then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal, so putting the nuclear program “in a box” is the first imperative, Mr. Sullivan said.

“We are going to have to address Iran’s other bad behavior, malign behavior across the region, but from our perspective, a critical early priority has to be to deal with what is an escalating nuclear crisis as they move closer to having enough fissile material for a weapon,” Mr. Sullivan said. “And we would like to make sure that we re-establish some of the parameters and constraints around the program that have fallen away over the course of the past two years.”

Containing Iran’s ability to produce bombmaking nuclear material was the central rationale the Obama administration applied in seeking the deal that Mr. Sullivan helped to shape.

The timing of a U.S. return to the deal, as well as new concessions or promises made to Iran and the scope of a potential followon agreement, is one of the first major foreign policy tests for the Biden administration.

Mr. Sullivan did not spell out a preferred timeline, and the issue is now being debated among White House and State Department advisers. But Mr. Sullivan’s emphasis on a pressing need to contain Iran suggests he may push for an accelerated response.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has adopted a skeptical tone about any fast action, saying on his first full day in office Wednesday that a U.S. return to the deal is still far off.

“Iran is out of compliance on a number of fronts. And it would take some time, should it make the decision to do so, for it to come back into compliance and time for us then to assess whether it was meeting its obligations,” Mr. Blinken said during a news conference. “We’re not there yet, to say the least.”

As a candidate, Mr. Biden committed to returning to the international compact that Mr. Trump had run in 2016 on reversing. After Mr. Trump pulled the U.S. out in 2018, Iran began breaking its obligations under the agreement.

Mr. Biden set the condition that Iran would have to return to complying with the agreement first. He said a restored deal would then be a starting point for negotiation of a larger agreement that addresses longstanding concerns over Iran’s ballistic missile capability, its support for terrorism, and its aggressions toward its Israeli and Persian Gulf neighbors.

Mr. Sullivan mentioned those concerns in remarks to the United States Institute of Peace and said the threats have only gotten worse because of Mr. Trump’s decision.

“Our view is that if we can get back to diplomacy and can put Iran’s nuclear program in a box, that will create a platform upon which to build a global effort, including partners and allies in the region and in Europe and elsewhere, to take on the other significant threats Iran poses, including on the ballistic missile issue,” he said.

With key decisions about the pace and scope of U.S. outreach on hold, the administration Friday named former Obama administration Middle East adviser and veteran diplomat Robert Malley to be a special envoy on Iran.

Conservatives including Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., criticized the pick before it was announced, calling Mr. Malley too soft on Tehran. Other opponents of the 2015 deal said Mr. Malley has been too critical of Israel, whose leaders opposed the deal reached when Mr. Biden was vice president.

Iran has said the U.S. must make the first move.

Iran’s parliament has tried to raise pressure on the new administration, threatening to suspend some U.N. nuclear inspections unless the United States lifts sanctions by Feb. 21.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to Mr. Blinken’s remarks with a tweet in English.

“Reality check for @SecBlinken: The US violated (the) JCPOA,” Mr. Zarif tweeted.