Introduction

Robert Malley has been a key figure in US middle-east policy making under three Democrat presidents. When Joe Biden assumed the presidency and sought to revive the nuclear deal with Iran that had been junked by President Trump, he turned to Robert Malley to serve as his Iran envoy. Two years later any hopes there had been of a reset in relations with Tehran have been comprehensively dashed. Talks to restore the so-called JCPOA nuclear deal are all but dead. And if all that weren't enough to ensure a new level of tension with Iran, Israel has a new extreme right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu which is committed to neutralizing Iran's capacity to build a nuclear weapon