U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that prospects for a deal with Iran were “at best, tenuous”, adding: “If Iran maintains demands that go beyond the scope of the JCPOA, we will continue to reject them, and there will be no deal. We are fully prepared to live with and confront that reality if that is Iran’s choice… Iran’s government will need to explain to its people why it has chosen isolation and even greater economic hardship when a realistic deal was readily at hand”. Malley also described the Biden administration strategy toward Iran as “committed to working with our European allies to fully revive the JCPOA if Iran is willing… building on that deal to seek a broader, follow-on diplomatic outcome that enjoys broad congressional backing; and throughout, coordinating closely with Europe, and, crucially, with Israel and our regional partners, against the backdrop of the Abraham Accords, to deter, counter and respond to the full array of Iranian threats and to credibly demonstrate that we will never permit Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon”.