Iran nuclear deal’s future a ‘huge question mark,’ US negotiator says
US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley told lawmakers that prospects for a renewed agreement with Tehran were "at best, tenuous."
Whether Iran and world powers can reach a deal to salvage the landmark nuclear agreement is a “huge question mark,” the Biden administration’s chief negotiator told US lawmakers on Wednesday.
“We do not have a deal with Iran and prospects for reaching one are, at best, tenuous,” US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said during testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Malley appeared before the committee more than a year after the United States and Iran launched indirect talks aimed at reviving the multilateral accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018.
The Iran envoy told the panel that the “odds of a successful negotiation are lower than the odds of failure” but that the administration was still seeking to re-enter the deal with the hopes of then reaching a “longer and stronger” agreement that would address other non-nuclear concerns.
