Despite the Biden administration’s efforts to finalize an agreement before the inauguration of Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s new president, Tehran has refused to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The clerical regime’s intransigence and Washington’s failure to exploit its economic leverage over Tehran have created an impasse in the talks, with Tehran placing them on hold in an apparent effort to extract more concessions from Washington.