New accents in the U.S.-Iran relations. The perspective of Joe Biden’s administration

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to determine the leading interests and objectives, both articulated and unarticulated, in Joe Biden’s Iran policy, as well as to present the determining factors which could lead to a potential reorientation of American policy towards this state. The article also aims to identify elements of continuity and change in Biden’s Iran strategy as compared to the Trump administration. The main hypothesis of the article assumes that contrary to the Trump administration, Joe Biden has given priority to dialogue and diplomacy with Iran. However, the dialogue is not unconditional and does not constitute a sum of compromises on the part of the United States (U.S). The paper points that the objective of Joe Biden’s administration is to introduce new accents through partial departure from the strategy pursued by the Trump administration focused on sustaining purposefully and deliberately hostile relations with Iran, intentionally presented as a backlash state, which allowed the U.S. to favour and strengthen its allies and Iran’s adversaries in the Middle East – Israel and Saudi Arabia. The two leading goals in the new administration’s policy towards Tehran are to persuade Iran’s authorities to return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which would become a platform for negotiating a new nuclear agreement, and to stop Iran’s support for Shia militias in Iraq and Syria. The key factor to determine the success or failure of such strategy is the victory of an ultraconservative candidate Ebrahim Raisi in the presidential election in 2021.