U.S. President Biden has selected Robert Malley to become the administration's special envoy to Iran.
Malley was a key member of the team that negotiated the original 2015 nuclear deal during the Obama White House, and will now spearhead one of the most perilous and divisive tasks of the new administration.
Matthew Larotonda reports.
U.S. President Biden has named one of the original negotiators of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to spearhead the new administration's efforts to revive diplomacy with Iran, as its special envoy.
Robert Malley is a career diplomat who served both the Obama and Clinton White Houses.
He was also at the table, seated across from the Iranians, when the 2015 deal was finalized in Switzerland.
Malley is now entering one of the most perilous and politically divisive challenges facing the U.S. government, after four years of rapidly worsening relations between the two countries under President Trump - and crises that at one point brought them to the brink of war.
It won't be easy.
On Friday (January 29) one of the other men that was at that table back in 2015, Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, reiterated Tehran's demand that it will not reverse the steps it's taken to revive its nuclear program unless Washington lifts sanctions first.
The Biden administration has previously said that Iran has to make the first move.
Trump abandoned the nuclear treaty back in 2018.
Iran started walking back its commitments soon after.
Israeli military chief of staff’s remarks are rare and a clear warning to the Biden administration on its relations with Iran.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the incoming U.S. administration on Wednesday to return to a 2015 nuclear agreement and lift..
