Biden backs away from Iran nuclear deal he once championed – National & International News – TUE 27Aug2024

Biden misses chance to restart Iran nuclear talks, deflate tensions.

New, narrower indictment for Trump in Jan. 6 case.

Harris to sit for first interview since starting her campaign.

NATIONAL NEWS

Trump hit with new, narrower election subversion indictment after SCOTUS immunity ruling

Special counsel Jack Smith has issued a superseding indictment with a narrower set of accusations against former President Trump in the 2020 election interference case. The new indictment has not removed any of the four original charges, but has removed some of the allegations of criminal acts associated with each charge.

Smith revised the indictment following the ruling from the Supreme Court earlier this summer that essentially granted Trump and other sitting presidents near-total immunity for official acts. The new indictment removes evidence pertaining to Trump’s actions as president but retains allegations about actions he took as a candidate seeking reelection. For example, the document still alleges criminal conduct in Trump’s efforts to pressure his VP Mike Pence to block the certification of the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021. “The defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceeding, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” the revised indictment states.

Judge Tanya Chutkan was expected to rule on what if any charges may have to be thrown out in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Even if the prosecution goes ahead as is, it certainly won’t come to trial before the election in November.

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Harris to sit for first interview since starting her campaign

For weeks, allies and opponents alike have been calling on Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to sit for an interview. So far, she and her campaign have resisted those calls. In the past, Harris has had some serious gaffes in one-on-one interviews, including famously her 2021 interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. Holt asked her if she was planning on visiting the border in her capacity as the Biden administration’s border czar. Harris answered, “We’ve been to the border”. Holt quickly corrected her saying, “You haven’t,” to which Harris responded, “And I haven’t been to Europe”.

Today, CNN announced that Harris would sit for an interview this Thursday at 9pm ET/8pm CT with Dana Bash. However, Harris will not be facing Bash alone. Her affable running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will be sitting in the interview with her.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Biden misses chance to restart Iran nuclear talks, deflate tensions

When Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, it was considered a landmark diplomatic accomplishment of the Obama administration. The JCPOA set up rigorous monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure Iran would not create weapons grade uranium. In return, Iran got much-needed sanctions relief from the US and other countries. According to IAEA monitors, Iran was consistently in 100% compliance with their obligations under the deal.

Despite this, President Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. Since then Iran has steadily increased the level of its uranium refinement. When President Biden won in 2020, he vowed to restore the JCPOA. Unfortunately, talks early in his administration failed to secure a deal before hardliner Ebrahim Raisi won the Iranian presidency in June 2021.

Following Raisi’s recent death in a helicopter accident, Iran went in a different direction. Moderate Masoud Pezeshkian won the presidency in June this year with a promise to improve Iran’s US relations. Despite current tensions in the region, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei recently gave Pezeshkian his blessing to restart nuclear talks with the US. 

However, the Biden administration has dampened any hopes of re-entering negotiations at this time. “We will judge Iran’s leadership by their actions, not their words,” a State Department spokesperson said. “If Iran wants to demonstrate seriousness or a new approach, they should stop nuclear escalations and start meaningfully cooperating with the IAEA”. 

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has previously said that she supported the JCPOA, but has not said whether she would restart talks if she wins.

The window to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is shrinking. In July, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Iran may be “weeks away” from having the capacity to produce weapons grade material. However, there is no sign yet they are planning to weaponize it.

Israel’s nuclear game

With tensions increasing in the Middle East and Iran’s fast-approaching “breakout” point, it seems counterintuitive for Biden to pass up a chance to open dialog and de-escalate with Iran, especially since he now has a willing counterpart in Pezeshkian. It’s possible that Biden’s reluctance to restart talks with Iran is out of deference to Israel.

Before the JCPOA was signed in 2015, a furious Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before Congress demanding that the talks be cut off. Unusually, Netanyahu’s demands fell on deaf ears. At the time, both Democrats and Republicans in Congress agreed that the deal was in line with US interests and the deal was ratified on a bipartisan basis.

Now, the calculus has changed. Netanyahu is seemingly looking for any excuse to start a wider regional war, and the White House seems to be tiptoeing around him to avoid giving him an excuse. Iran is likewise trying to avoid furnishing Netanyahu with an excuse to launch an all-out assault. Iran has vowed to retaliate for Israel’s assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil last month. However they signaled recently that any response would likely be limited in scope. In this context, Pezeshkian’s offer to restart the nuclear talks looks like another olive branch to the US.

Incidentally, Israel’s own nuclear arsenal has received very little scrutiny, despite Israel’s recent threat to use a nuclear weapon in Gaza. Israel has always officially denied having nuclear weapons, and is not a party to the Non-proliferation treaty. However, experts estimate that Israel has at least 90 nuclear warheads. Israel has also repeatedly targeted Iranian nuclear facilities and even assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists. Despite years of provocations, Iran has shown surprising restraint. However, with no prospects of striking a new deal with Biden, Iran may decide it’s in their interests to pursue a nuclear weapon after all, if only as some deterrent to Israel.