Irish Examiner view: Timid approach on Iran is wrong

it is essential that the Biden administration toughens its stance towards Iran’s hardline government

US President Joe Biden could put the Middle East in jeopardy if he doesn't tackle issues with Iran head on.

The timidity of the Biden administration in its dealings with Iran is worrying. As indirect US-Iranian talks resume in Vienna and then falter on saving the 2015 nuclear deal, it is essential that the Americans toughen their stance towards Iran’s hardline government. Failure to do so threatens not just Israel, but the wider Middle East and beyond.

As it stands, Iran has abandoned any compromises it made in the previous six rounds of talks, held on to those made by others, and demanded more last week. French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian believes the Iranians are playing for time. “The longer the talks last, the more they go back on their commitments... and get closer to capacity to get a nuclear weapon,” he told a French parliamentary committee.

His assessment may be more sure-footed than that by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Bill Burns who told the Wall Street Journal that the agency does not believe Iran has decided to take steps to “weaponise” a nuclear device, even though it has improved its ability to enrich uranium.

That may be the case but the CIA has got things wrong before on the Middle East and beyond. While it accurately analysed the Six-Day War between Israel and Arab states in 1967, it failed to predict the Yom Kippur War six years later when Israel was attacked by a coalition of states led by Egypt and Syria. It also failed to predict the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the 9/11 attacks.