In an interview with US National Radio on Tuesday, Robert Malley reiterated the Biden administration’s previous position that the United States would be ready to return to the deal if Iran returned to its commitments.
Claiming that the growth of Iran’s nuclear program will lead to increased tensions in the Middle East, he added: “Our assessment is that a return to the Iran nuclear deal is in the interest of the United States and its citizens.”
Malley, who is serving as a special envoy for the Biden administration, responds that “it’s not going to work that way,” telling NPR’s Steve Inskeep that stance would mean Iran is “not serious” about rejoining the deal.
Malley helped negotiate the deal in 2015 when he served in the Obama National Security Council.
Here are excerpts from the interview, which have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
How out of compliance is Iran at the moment?
Every day that goes by, they’re more out of compliance because they have obviously increased their stockpile of enriched uranium. They are experimenting with centrifuges that are more advanced than the ones that they were supposed to be using, they have restricted the access of the International Atomic Energy Organization. So they are doing things that are out of compliance.
And, you know, President Biden has been clear during the campaign and since he’s been in the Oval Office that the United States is prepared to come into compliance if Iran does. Unfortunately, ever since the president has been in office, Iran has moved further out of compliance.
Even before these negotiations began, there were groups who are opposed to resuming this nuclear agreement who’ve been taking out ads in papers and lobbying in different ways. Is there a case to be made for the status quo? It wasn’t what you would have done had you been around during the Trump administration. But Iran is still sorting of in the deal and it’s also sanctioned and restricted in many ways.
Listen, we’ve had a real-life experiment with this. Last three years the Trump administration tested the proposition that putting Iran under maximum pressure and telling it either it needs to come back and forget about the existing nuclear deal and agree to more stringent requirements, or else the pressure would continue.
Well, we’ve seen what happened. Iran expanded its nuclear program, is getting closer to, sort of, troubling levels of enriched uranium, troubling levels of advanced centrifuges, troubling restrictions on the verification and monitoring, the unprecedented verification that the nuclear deal provided. So, no, we’ve seen the result of the maximum pressure campaign. It has failed.
