President Biden campaigned on a swift return to the Iran nuclear deal. But with Iran freezing what have become laborious negotiations until the new hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, takes office next month, the prospect for a revitalized agreement remains uncertain. Is Tehran solely to blame for this impasse? This week, Eurasia Group Foundation’s Mark Hannah is joined by Barbara Slavin and John Glaser to make sense of U.S.-Iran relations and the implications of Raisi’s election. While a deal may be closer than headlines might lead you to believe, Barbara and John argue that prospects for détente continue to remain hindered by hardliners on both sides of the negotiating table — and decades of deep-seated animosity.

 

Barbara Slavin is a career journalist and the director of the Atlantic Council’s Future of Iran Initiative. She is the author of the book, Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation. You can follow Barbara on Twitter at @barbaraslavin1.

John Glaser is the director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. He is also the host of the Power Problems Podcast and coauthor of the book, Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America's Broken Foreign Policy Even Worse (and How We Can Recover). You can follow John on Twitter at @jwcglaser.