Disclaimer: This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
A video has surfaced on social media showing an interaction between President Biden and Sudi Farokhnia, the acting president of Iranian-American Democrats of California.
Farokhnia recorded the video on November 4, 2022, at an election campaign event in California. In it, she asks the president about the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran Nuclear Deal.
“President Biden, would you please announce that the JCPOA is dead?” she said. President Biden responded, “No.” He said that he wouldn’t make that announcement “for a lot of reasons.”
“It is dead but we’re not going to announce it,” Biden said, before adding, “long story.”
Farokhnia continued, “We just don’t want any deals with the mullahs.” She was referring to the ruling regime in Tehran which has crushed protest efforts throughout the country.
The protests emerged following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody. The woman was arrested after she was accused of not properly wearing her hijab.
Biden replied, “I know they don’t represent you, but they will have a nuclear weapon that they will represent.”
Software engineer, Damon Maghsoudi, identified the woman asking the questions and shared it on Twitter.
Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), also shared that video and referred to Biden’s comments as “a reflection of reality” when speaking to Newsweek.
He added that JCPOA “has been dead for some time.”
“The non-proliferation benefits that the deal promised are not worth the sanctions relief offered,” he said. “The JCPOA is based on a political, geopolitical, and technical reality from 2015 that does not exist anymore. There is also no sustainable political constituency in the United States to keep it alive.”
According to The Daily Mail reporting on the topic:
In November Iran began producing enriched uranium at 60 percent purity at the country’s underground Fordo nuclear plant, official media reported, just a shy step away from the 90 percent purity needed to make a nuclear bomb.
Former President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-brokered Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 before Biden officials began negotiations to revive the deal.
The deal eased sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program. Iran resumed its nuclear work after the deal fell apart though denied it was working toward producing a bomb.
Talks to bring back the deal took a back burner over the summer, though U.S. officials have said they want to restore the agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Biden in the clip seems to suggest they already have one.
The JCPOA is an agreement meant to curb the development of nuclear weapons by Tehran in exchange for the “phased removal of sanctions.”
The agreement was made between Iran and China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States on July 14, 2015, and endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted on July 20, 2015.
The terms of the agreement were pretty basic. Iran would abide by strict rules and oversight of its nuclear activity. In exchange, crippling sanctions would be removed and it would be allowed to engage with the international community.
Critics of the Biden administration’s desire to re-enter the Iran Nuclear Deal feel that it weakens the U.S.’s position.
A retired Air Force general said that no deal with Iran is preferred over a bad deal with Iran.
