Biden on rejoining Iran deal: ‘The last goddamn thing we need in’ Middle East ‘is a buildup of nuclear capability’

President-elect Joe Biden reaffirmed his desire to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal if Tehran comes back into compliance, telling New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in an interview published Wednesday that the deal is key to preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

“And the last goddamn thing we need in that part of the world is a buildup of nuclear capability,” Biden said.

Biden and his advisers have previously said he would reenter what’s officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action if Iran returns to compliance with the agreement.

President Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Obama-era deal in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran. In response, Tehran began broaching key limits in the deal on uranium enrichment.

In a September op-ed for CNN, Biden wrote that “if Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations.”

But hurdles have been mounting in recent weeks that could complicate Biden’s plan.

Most notably, regional tensions are picking back up after the killing of a top Iranian nuclear scientist that Tehran has blamed on Israel. Iranian officials have vowed retaliation. 

Israel has not commented on last week’s killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as the father of Iran’s nuclear program, but is widely suspected of having carried it out.

Asked by Friedman whether he stands by his September op-ed, Biden replied that “it’s going to be hard, but yeah.”

Once the nuclear deal is restored, Biden’s team envisions further talks to deal with issues such as sunsetting provisions in the original agreement and Iran’s destabilizing behavior elsewhere in the region.

Earlier this week, Friedman wrote a column arguing Biden should use leverage from Trump’s sanctions to curb Iranian exports of precision-guided missiles throughout the region before rejoining the nuclear deal.

In his interview with Friedman, Biden appeared to push back on that idea.

“Look, there’s a lot of talk about precision missiles and all range of other things that are destabilizing the region,” Biden said. But, he added, “the best way to achieve getting some stability in the region” is to deal “with the nuclear program.”