Even before President Biden took office in January the peace movement has been adamant: the United States must rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, more commonly referred to as the Iran Nuclear Deal, and it must do so quickly. The diplomatic agreement was one of the most important achievements of the Obama Administration. The rash abandonment of the deal by Donald Trump in 2018 brought America to the very brink of war with Iran, a catastrophe only narrowly avoided.

With an Iranian presidential election scheduled for June 18th, we had hoped that the Iran Deal would be rejoined before a change in leadership made negotiations more complicated. President Biden certainly said he would rejoin the deal, on the basis of the original agreement. Now, with negotiations still trudging along in Vienna, time is running out.

Joining us to discuss the results of Iran's presidential elections, its effects on negotiating a return to the JCPOA, and the overall state of US-Iran relations is Dr. Assal Rad, Senior Research Fellow at the National Iranian American Council.

Dr. Assal Rad graduated with a PhD in Middle Eastern History from the University of California, Irvine in 2018. Her PhD research focused on Modern Iran, with an emphasis on national identity formation and identity in post-revolutionary Iran. With this background, Assal works with the policy team on research and writing related to Iran policy issues and U.S.-Iran relations.

Assal joined the National Iranian American Council in January 2019. After working with NIAC in California as a volunteer on election and voting campaigns in 2018, Assal joined the team in order to further this work and embolden the voices of Iranian Americans. Her writing can be seen in Newsweek, Independent, the National Interest, and Responsible Statecraft, and she has appeared as a commentator on the BBC, Al Jazeera, BBC Persian and NPR.