The Biden administration, to be sworn in on January 20, will have to deal with many urgent issues at home and abroad and to repair the rubble left behind by the Trump administration. For Israel, despite the existential importance of reaching a two-state solution with the Palestinians and preventing a binational catastrophe, there is no more urgent priority at the moment than a return to the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between the world powers (P5 +1) and Iran. This will immediately stop the prospect of Iranian nuclear breakout, which has become a very real possibility since the Trump administration’s abandonment of the agreement.

Biden will strive to improve the agreement, postpone the expiration date of the agreement (sunset provisions), improve the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and reach agreements on other issues on the agenda with Iran – the ballistic and other means of launching a bomb, undermining stability and promoting terrorism in the region. But the expectation that Biden will condition the return to the same reality before Trump unilaterally breached the agreement in significantly improving the agreement is unrealistic and even dangerous.

Read More →