U.S. diplomats, including President Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser Jared Kushner, elevated the push for normalization deals after Mr. Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the Obama-era international nuclear deal with Iran a move that outraged U.S. allies in Europe but was celebrated by Iran’s major rivals in the region, most notably Saudi Arabia.
The incoming Biden administration, which has praised the Abraham Accords but also sharply criticized Mr. Trump’s Iran policies, is now carefully weighing its options on how to proceed.
“I think we’re going to have a Biden administration that’s eager to rejoin the [Iran nuclear deal], but also sensitive to the fact that the Middle East is now speaking with one voice on the dangers of Iran, and of the fact that there is a big possibility to build on the success of the Abraham Accords,” said Jonathan Schanzer, a Middle East scholar with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
âKim Jong-un Uses Party âCongress to Double Down on Nuclear Program
The North Korean leader said his economic policies had failed, but he called his nuclear arms buildup one of the great feats âin the history of the Korean nationâ.â
North Korean state media released this photo of Kim Jong-un and other officials, said to have been taken on Tuesday, the last day of the Workers Party congress.Credit.Korean Central News Agency, via Agence France-Presse â Getty Images
Published Jan. 13, 2021Updated Jan. 15, 2021
SEOUL, South Korea â As North Koreaâs leader, Kim Jong-un, convened âa party congress over the past âeight days, outside analysts wondered if his failure to improve the economic lives of his people would affect the dictatorâs nuclear ambitions.
The North Korean leader said his economic policies had failed, but he called his nuclear arms buildup one of the great feats “in the history of the Korean nation.”
Within the first week of the year, the country had seized a South Korean tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and announced its return to 20% uranium enrichment, a massive breach of the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with world powers.
The tanker seizure, Iran says, is in response to South Korea holding $7 billion of its cash, frozen as a result of U.S. sanctions the Trump administration imposed on Iran after pulling out of the deal in 2018. South Korea s foreign minister arrived in Tehran on Sunday to discuss the tanker s release.
The moves are sure to create a headache for the incoming Biden administration, whose top officials never wanted the nuclear deal officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA to be abandoned in the first place.