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- Biden in a newly surfaced video says the Iran nuclear deal is "dead."
- "It is dead, but we are not gonna announce it. Long story," Biden said.
- Negotiations to revive the pact have been stalled for months.
President Joe Biden appears to say that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is "dead" in a newly surfaced video circulating on social media, which was reportedly filmed during a election event on November 4.
In the video, Biden said the deal was "dead" but underscored that his administration couldn't announce this publicly.
"It is dead, but we are not gonna announce it. Long story," Biden said. The president said there were "a lot of reasons" why he couldn't announce this.
The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.
—دامون مقصودی (@DamonMaghsoudi) December 20, 2022
Biden made reviving the 2015 nuclear deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — a top foreign policy goal when he entered the White House, but negotiations to restore the pact are stalled. Meanwhile, Iran has enriched uranium up to 60%, not far off from weapons-grade levels (90%).
The Biden administration in recent months has also signaled that other issues pertaining to Iran have bumped the deal down its list of priorities. Along these lines, the administration has expressed serious concerns over the Iranian government's brutal crackdown on recent protests, as well as Russia's use of Iranian drones in the Ukraine war.
Robert Malley, the Biden administration's special envoy for Iran, in an interview with Foreign Policy published this month said, "We're not spending our time now focused on the deal."
"Our focus is on what's happening in Iran and Iran's support for Putin's war of aggression in Ukraine," Malley added.
Similarly, Secretary of State Antony Blinken in early December said, "We engaged in a meaningful diplomatic process to see if we could reach agreement for a mutual return to the JCPOA, but Iran has repeatedly demonstrated that it is unwilling or unable to commit to the steps that it needs to take."
The 2015 deal was designed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran. The Trump administration engaged in a "maximum pressure" strategy, aiming to squeeze Iran into negotiating a more stringent version of the deal, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
Trump's decision to pull the US from the pact raised tensions between Washington and Tehran to historic heights — raising fears of war at times — and gradually saw Iran take steps away from the deal. Critics of Trump's decision say it ultimately pushed Iran closer to development a nuclear weapon.
Blinken in early December said the Biden administration still believed diplomacy is the best way to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon, adding, "But should the Iranian regime reject that path, its leaders should make no mistake that all options are on the table."
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