The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted in favor of US President Joe Biden’s nominee for deputy secretary of state Thursday. Wendy Sherman’s nomination will next move to a full Senate vote, though that could be delayed amid criticism of her work on the Iran nuclear deal.
Sherman was the United States’ lead negotiator for the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement while serving as undersecretary of State for political affairs under President Barack Obama. The agreement removed international sanctions on Iran in exchange for the Islamic Republic scaling back its nuclear program. In 2018, US President Donald Trump removed the United States from the deal, alleging that Iran was still seeking to build a nuclear weapon, and reimposed harsh sanctions. Iran is no longer in compliance with the deal.
