y far the worst human rights transgressor in the region, and giving the cold shoulder to Israel, the sole democracy in the region.
Israel and the Gulf states particularly loathed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and that Obama administration officials held secret preliminary talks with Iran without informing them. The talks, in Oman, were led by William Burns, then the deputy secretary of state, and a young state department official, Jake Sullivan.
Mr Burns has been named as Mr Biden’s CIA director. Mr Sullivan is to be his national security adviser.
The face of the talks when they began in the open was Wendy Sherman, the state department undersecretary. She later described the pain, as Jewish herself, of becoming an object of attack for right-wing, pro-Netanyahu Jewish activists in the US. She will become deputy secretary of state in Mr Biden’s administration.
The appointments are said to have alarmed aides to Mr Netanyahu, whose relations with Mr Obama, never good, reached rock bottom after the deal.
Mr Biden’s stated intention of rejoining the deal is a direct challenge to Mr Netanyahu and the Gulf states. That he is also threatening to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia over its role in the war in Yemen will also alienate Riyadh.
No mention in the article of the Abraham Accords that now align Israel with the majority of Arab countries in the region. That historic triumph, which Trump helped broker, rather contradicts the message here that Biden is returning to Obama sanity-land after the appalling Trump and his love of "strongman leaders". So no, if this is any guide it looks like nothing has been learned and it'll soon be back to the old JCPOA days.
At least the mullahs will be pleased.
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