WASHINGTON – President Biden has named Robert Malley, a Middle East veteran and former Obama administration official, as his special envoy for Iran, two senior State Department officials said Thursday night.
Mr. Malley will be responsible for trying to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear program – and stop enriching uranium beyond the bounds imposed by a 2015 agreement with world powers – and will agree to new negotiations before the United States breaks its lifting economic sanctions against Iran.
It is far from clear whether the strategy, as indicated by Mr. Biden, will not succeed. Iran has repeatedly said it will not abide by the 2015 nuclear deal again until the United States has eased its sanctions and instituted a game of high stakes on which side will cut first.
Returning to the nuclear deal, negotiated by the Obama administration, was among Biden’s campaign promises after President Donald J. Trump withdrew from it in 2018. Since then, Iran has gradually violated the agreement it seeks to curb. , and last year international inspectors concluded that it again had enough fuel to build a bomb.
Mr. Malley currently runs the International Crisis Group in Washington, a conflict resolution organization. He was elected despite accusations from conservatives that he would offer too many concessions in order to reach any possible agreement. Reuters reported earlier on Thursday about his appointment.
One of the senior officials of the State Department said that negotiations remain far in the distance; the second official disputes reports that the United States and Iran have already begun back-channel talks. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity before Malley’s appointment was officially announced.
The first official said Mr. Malley and other diplomats would initially consult with leaders in Europe, the Middle East and Congress to ensure that new negotiations reflect their concerns and insights.
Britain, France and Germany are keen to return to the 2015 agreement and have tried to keep it intact, even as Tehran moves beyond its borders. But Israel and Muslim nations across the Middle East have long opposed the agreement, in part because it did virtually nothing to address Iran’s other military threats, including its missile program and support for proxy militias in the region.
Senior officials in Congress, from both sides of the political path, also remain skeptical about returning to the agreement.
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The first State Department official said U.S. negotiators would eventually seek a “longer, stronger, but also broader agreement” to curb Iran’s missiles and proxies – another strategy Tehran is already refusing to consider.
But it reflects what the Trump administration demanded when it withdrew from the 2015 agreement and instituted a pressure campaign of harsh sanctions and military threats against Iran and its senior officials.
The State Department official said there was hope for a “way forward”, noting the dire state of Iran’s economy. But he declined to give details, including whether any approval measures could be offered as a good faith measure, other than rejecting any comparison with the Trump administration’s pressure campaign.
Mr. Malley will oversee a team of negotiators and experts who would refer Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to the issue on Wednesday as “different perspectives.”
Even before Mr. Malley was appointed, Conservatives accused him of being too accommodating to Iran and not supporting Israel enough, based on his record as a senior official for Middle East affairs during the Obama and Clinton administration. Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, a recognized opponent of the nuclear deal, posted on Twitter that the choice of mr. Malley would be ‘deeply concerned’.
In a public statement supporting his appointment, signed by dozens of foreign policy experts and former U.S. officials, Mr. Called Malley ‘one of the most respected foreign policy experts in the United States’ and a ‘smart analyst and capable diplomat’.