Iran backs Biden into a corner
Rejoining the nuclear deal might be easier said than done
Campaigning before an election highlights what presidential candidates say they will do. Governing, by contrast, showcases what they can actually get done. When it comes to Iran policy, President-elect Joe Biden is about to discover the yawning gap between those two realities. Biden called President Donald Trump’s ‘maximum-pressure’ campaign against Iran a “dangerous failure.” Since Trump walked away from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed ever-tougher sanctions, Iran has 12 times the amount of low-enriched uranium it had when Barack Obama left office. As a result, the ‘breakout time’ for an Iranian nuclear weapon has dwindled from a year to a matter of months. Biden proposes to return to som
Also in this section
13 March 2026
Brussels is again weighing a cap on gas prices amid the Hormuz crisis, but the measure could backfire by deterring the LNG cargoes Europe urgently needs
12 March 2026
Emergency oil stocks provide a last line of defence to oil market shocks, so the IEA’s unprecedented 400m bl release represents something of a double-edged sword
12 March 2026
LPG could rapidly expand access to clean cooking across Africa and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution each year, but infrastructure shortages and regulatory barriers are slowing investment and market growth
11 March 2026
Missiles over Dubai and disruption in Hormuz are testing the emirate’s reputation—and shaking the energy hub at the centre of the Gulf economy






