Should Washington Revive Nuclear Diplomacy with Pezeshkian’s Iran?
Nuclear diplomacy between the United States and Iran has effectively been put on pause since the October 7 Hamas attack. This is in spite of the fact that Iran’s nuclear program has continued to expand, and the IAEA has expressed increasing concerns about its lack of insight into the Iranian program. But Masoud Pezeshkian’s surprise election following the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi may provide an opportunity to restart talks. Pezeshkian’s foreign policy team is expected to include some of the key diplomats who negotiated the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA). Moreover, Iran’s heart surgeon turned president has called for direct talks between the US and Iran.
Should the Biden administration use the remaining months before the November elections to lay the groundwork for renewed nuclear talks? Is there political space in Washington for careful exploration of the intent of the Pezeshkian government? Is the nuclear issue the natural starting point, or do the US and Iran have a more pressing common interest in first preventing the Gaza war from spilling over into Lebanon?
To answer these and other questions, the Quincy Institute held a discussion featuring Suzanne DiMaggio and Aaron David Miller, both senior fellows at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins University. Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President at the Quincy Institute, moderated.
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Panelists
Suzanne DiMaggio
Suzanne DiMaggio is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she focuses on U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East and Asia. She is one of the foremost experts and practitioners of diplomatic dialogues with countries that have limited or no official relations with the United States, especially Iran and North Korea. For nearly two decades, she has led these track 1.5 and track 2 conversations to help policymakers identify pathways for diplomatic progress on a range of issues, including regional security, nonproliferation, terrorism, and governance.
Vali Nasr
Vali Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins-SAIS, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center. From 2012 to 2019, he served as the Dean of the School, and from 2009 to 2011, he was the Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. He authored "Forces of Fortune: The Rise of a New Muslim Middle Class and How it Will Change Our World"; "The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam will Shape the Future"; and "Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty". He has written for The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
Aaron David Miller
Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, focusing on U.S. foreign policy. He has written five books, including his most recent, "The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President" (2014) and "The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace" (2008). He received his PhD in Middle East and U.S. diplomatic history from the University of Michigan in 1977.
Trita Parsi
Trita Parsi is the Executive Vice President at the Quincy Institute. He was the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order and was named by the Washingtonian Magazine as one of the 25 most influential voices on foreign policy in Washington D.C. in both 2021 and 2022. Parsi is an expert on U.S.-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign politics, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He is the co-founder and former President of the National Iranian American Council. He received his PhD in foreign policy at Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies.