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Media / News Headlines
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs ... September 30, 2020
Peter Burgess
Washington is divided over Iran. In 2018, President Donald Trump formally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration and swiftly reimposed sanctions. This “maximum pressure” campaign has not let up; a U.S. airstrike killed the Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani earlier this year, and the Trump administration is now considering additional sanctions on Iran’s financial sector. Joe Biden, meanwhile, has expressed his support for reentering a deal with Tehran.
What are the objectives of U.S. Iran policy? Would it even be possible to reach a new agreement if Biden were to win the presidency?
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlines Trump’s approach to confrontation and negotiation with Iran—an approach that Kian Tajbakhsh argues is better suited to realities on the ground than it first appears.
Mara Karlin and Tamara Cofman Wittes contend that the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for a new U.S. policy toward Iran and the Middle East as a whole. Puneet Talwar warns that obstinacy and misunderstanding are putting the two countries on a collision course—and Hadi Kahalzadeh points out that sanctions are more devastating amid a global health crisis. Finally, Sanam Vakil assesses the viability of a grand bargain, and Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon consider whether the United States and Iran can break their 40-year cycle of irrational hostility.
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Image Iran and the United States Can’t See Each Other Clearly
Both Sides Think They Are Winning—and That Is a Recipe for Miscalculation
By Puneet Talwar
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Image How to Do More With Less in the Middle East
American Policy in the Wake of the Pandemic
By Mara Karlin and Tamara Cofman Wittes
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Image Confronting Iran
The Trump Administration’s Strategy
By Michael R. Pompeo
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Image America’s Great Satan
The 40-Year Obsession With Iran
By Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon
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Image The Art of a New Iran Deal
What the World’s Diplomats Really Think of Trump’s Endgame in Iran
By Sanam Vakil
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Image Getting Real About Iran
It’s Not an Existential Threat or an Ally in the Offing
By Kian Tajbakhsh
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Image Sanctions Make the Coronavirus More Deadly
Stop Strangling Iran While It Fights the Pandemic
By Hadi Kahalzadeh