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Biden's Iran Policy: Relief Shouldn't Come without Iranian Concessions
(Bloomberg) Dennis Ross - While President-elect Joe Biden has expressed readiness to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, it would take four to six months for Iran to get back into compliance. If the new U.S. administration offers immediate sanctions relief, with Iran only beginning to take steps to comply again, Congress' Republican critics of the JCPOA are likely to cry foul. They will interpret as fundamentally mistaken any moves that reduce U.S. leverage while Iran is neither in compliance nor changing any of its destabilizing behaviors in the Middle East. Despite defiant talk, Khamenei knows the Iranians need relief and will look for a way to get it. They must not get it for free. The writer is counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and served in senior national security positions under four presidents.