Amos Hochstein, a former aide to President-elect Joe Biden, tells Israeli television that rejoining the Iran nuclear deal remains “high on his agenda.”
“I believe that in the first months [of his presidency], we’ll either see him rejoin the deal fully, or what I would call ‘JCPOA-minus,’ meaning lifting sanctions in exchange for suspending some of the Iranian nuclear programs [developed] in the past three years,” he tells Channel 12.
Hochstein, who oversaw energy sanctions on Iran under former president Barack Obama’s tenure, says Biden wants “some changes” to the pact clinched in 2015 — which Trump withdrew from in 2018 — including its expiration date.
On the Palestinians, Hochstein says Biden “sees the two-state solution as preferable to one state. And his fear is that if there is no two-state solution, in the end, it will lead to a binational state.”
The Biden administration will “bring back the Palestinian issue to the heart of the discourse.”
Hochstein also says he does not believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delay in congratulating Biden will affect relations. “He’ll smile and move on,” he says of Biden.
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From the Liveblog of
Sunday, November 8, 2020
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