Joe Biden’s election as U.S. president raised hopes that the United States and Iran could make an immediate breakthrough on reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But restoring the deal is proving harder than it may look, and the two sides are at an impasse. Washington, which withdrew from the accord in 2018, is calling on Tehran to enter talks over restoring compliance with the deal and addressing other areas of concern. Tehran rejected an initial offer to talk. On Thursday, it repeated its demand that Washington must relieve sanctions first.
To make their point, Iranian officials have been repeating a specific phrase: “Goodwill begets goodwill.” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif used the phrase in a January article in Foreign Affairs and has repeated variations of it since. Other senior officials have echoed him.
