Now that President Ebrahim Raisi is officially in power after his inauguration Thursday, officials are hoping meetings will begin again in the next few weeks, but it’s still not clear if and when that will happen.
While Raisi is considered a hardliner, he has said that in principle he does not oppose the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, and American officials have said they don’t expect him to walk away from the talks.
Still, negotiations stalled at the end of June, and with Iran’s nuclear program accelerating, US officials are privately and publicly signaling they won’t stay at the table forever. The original deal’s terms might no longer cover the program as it continues to advance.
“We are committed to diplomacy, but this process cannot go on indefinitely,” Blinken told reporters in Kuwait on July 29. “At some point, the gains achieved by the JCPOA cannot be fully recovered by a return to the JCPOA if Iran continues the activities that it’s…