The US has been trying to extricate itself from costly wars in the Middle East for far too long. The Iran deal was part of that story, an attempt to redirect its resources in containing China’s influence. But with Iran’s hardliner new president Ebrahim Raisi, taking over on August 5^th, that strategy is no longer viable, and China’s containment harder to achieve, argues Christian Emery.

Since the Biden Administration committed itself to trying to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, six rounds of negotiations in Vienna have failed to achieve an agreement. Talks will soon resume with a new Iranian administration led by Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, whose election was largely assured by the de-selection of rival candidates. Many assume that a deal is now unlikely to materialise, given Raisi’s harsh anti-American rhetoric and close political association with Khamenei, who recently issued a withering critique of what is currently on offer from Washington.