A new crisis between America and Iran looms

AFORMER FRENCH president, Nicolas Sarkozy, summed it up best: tough nuclear diplomacy with Iran, he said in 2007, was the best way to avoid the catastrophic choice between “an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran”. To escape this dilemma President Joe Biden has been trying to revive the nuclear agreement with Iran that Barack Obama negotiated in 2015 and Donald Trump tore up three years later.But Iran is not making it easy. It refused to speak directly to American officials in the six rounds of talks in Vienna that ended in June (it negotiated instead with European, Russian and Chinese intermediaries). It has not resumed formal negotiations since, citing the need for personnel changes after the election as president in June of , a hardliner. Talks could resume in November, Iran says.