Democrat Tim Walz, candidate for vice-president of the United States alongside Kamala Harris, questioned the ability of Republican candidate Donald Trump to exercise his functions, from the start of Tuesday’s debate between the two candidates in the vice-presidency, believing that the former president is too unstable to be trusted in times of crisis in the Middle East.
His Republican opponent, JD Vance, responded by saying that Trump had made the world safer during his time in office.
The current crisis in the Middle East, triggered a year ago by the Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel on October 7, was the first topic of the debate, giving both men the opportunity to exhibit their skills in foreign policy.
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Asked whether he would support a preemptive strike by Israel against Iran, Vance suggested he would defer to Israel’s judgment, while Walz did not answer the question directly.
Instead, Walz criticized Trump for ending the Iran nuclear deal. The 2015 agreement – soon known by the acronym JCPOA – which President Trump abandoned in 2018, had capped Iran’s uranium enrichment at a purity of 3.67% and its uranium stockpile at 202.8 kg – limits that Tehran has since largely exceeded.
“Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon because of Donald Trump’s inconsistent leadership,” he says.
Tehran has expressed its wish to relaunch negotiations to revive the agreement concluded in 2015 with the European countries of the E3 (Paris, London, Berlin), Washington, Moscow and Beijing.
Iran appears willing to resume nuclear negotiations, but is currently refusing the return to its sites of inspectors whose accreditation has been withdrawn, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday ( IAEA) in an interview with AFP.
The Iranians “are showing signs of willingness to re-engage, not only with the IAEA, but also (…) with our former partners in the 2015 nuclear agreement,” said Rafael Grossi, based on his discussions this week, in New York, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
On the other hand, Tehran does not intend to “put the inspectors back on the list” whose accreditation has been withdrawn, he explained, while considering the opportune moment “to do something” with the Iranians.
Iran has sharply reduced site inspections since 2021. Surveillance cameras were disconnected and the accreditation of a group of experts was withdrawn. A situation that the head of the IAEA has constantly deplored.
Rafael Grossi, whose relations with the Iranian authorities have deteriorated in recent years due to their lack of cooperation, is due to go to Tehran in October where he will not fail to put pressure so that the inspectors banned from the sites can return.
During his visit, he plans to discuss “different monitoring and verification measures that we could agree on before a broader agreement.”
The JCPOA was supposed to regulate its atomic activities in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions.
But it was shattered after the American withdrawal decided in 2018 by then-President Trump. Negotiations in Vienna failed in the summer of 2022.
In any case, a resumption of dialogue seems unlikely before the American presidential elections, according to experts, in a context of clear deterioration in relations between the two parties since the start of the conflict in the Middle East.
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