In its ongoing effort to repair the damage of the now-indicted ex-president, the Biden Administration has been negotiating indirectly with Iran to reinstitute some of the safeguards of the 2015 nuclear deal the Trump Administration violated, the New York Times reports. The talks–confirmed by officials of Iran, Israel and the US–have also included discussions about returning Americans being held by Iran.
After Trump violated the multinational agreement, Iran returned to increasing its stockpile of high-grade uranium. It’s also supplying Russia with drones the Kremlin is using in its Ukraine invasion, as well as supplying and funding terrorist groups operating in places like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Biden’s delegates started talking with Iran as a way to quell increased tensions growing since the Trump-ordered assassination by drone of an Iranian general on a trip to Iraq, an incident that led to missile attacks on US bases in Iraq that injured scores of military personnel and contractors. (Trump referred to the traumatic brain injuries impacting some of the wounded as “headaches” after initially claiming no Americans at all were injured.)