The Secretary of State used a meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency to talk tough on Iran this week, the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee approved a couple of nuclear-nonproliferation nominees at State.
Secretary Anthony Blinken’s Monday meeting with Rafael Grossi, director general of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), happened behind closed doors, but a State Department readout says the top U.S. diplomat “consulted with the Director General regarding the need for Iran to meet its nuclear verification obligations and commitments, cease its nuclear provocations, and return to the diplomacy it says it seeks.”
IAEA is in charge of inspecting Iranian nuclear facilities. Grossi is on a week-long tour of Washington and planned to meet with members of Congress, federal agencies, and think tanks around town. He was scheduled to appear in a webcast interview with the Stimson Center on Thursday.
Ten months into his first term, President Joe Biden has not rushed to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran Nuclear Deal, that the Donald Trump administration withdrew the U.S. from in 2017. The Barack Obama administration forged the deal, which traded sanctions relief for constraints on Iran’s ability to acquire fissile material, in 2015.
On the other hand, Biden is maneuvering nonproliferation diplomats into place to reprise rolls they held either prior to or just after the formation of the Iran nuclear deal.
On Monday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Laura Holgate’s nomination as the U.S. representative to the Vienna office of the United Nations, with the rank of ambassador. Holgate previously held that post from 2016 to 2017 and has since been vice president for materials risk management at the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, the think tank co-founded by former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Ted Turner.
In the same business meeting, the Foreign Relations Committee approved Adam Scheinman, now at the Naval War College, for a second go-round as the special representative of the President for nuclear nonproliferation at State. Scheinman served in the same role from September 2014 through January 2017, according to his Naval War College bio.
Meanwhile, the politics of dealing with an Iran that has had two years to shake free of some of the constraints of the nuclear deal has also touched the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) lately.
In her Oct. 7 confirmation hearing, Corey Hinderstein, Biden’s choice to run the NNSA’s Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation office, faced some pointed questions from the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee about her stance on Iran as a proliferation threat. The questions in each case stemmed from comments Hinderstein made on cable news in 2019. The Armed Services Committee approved her nomination this week.
