The zombie nuclear deal

Four months ago the Biden administration appeared to have decided it was now or never for Iran’s blighted nuclear-containment deal. Negotiated under Barack Obama then abrogated by Donald Trump, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action needed to be salvaged—as the administration hoped it would be—or else abandoned. Because time-limited, the strictures that the seven-party agreement placed on Iran’s nuclear programme would have had diminishing utility even if the Iranians had abided by them after America walked out. And they did not. Iran has enriched 18 times the quantity of uranium permitted under the deal, some of it to weapons-grade levels. “You can’t revive a dead corpse,” warned Rob Malley, Joe Biden’s chief negotiator on the issue.