Iran’s election unsettles Biden’s hope for a nuclear deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Biden administration officials are insisting that the election of a hard-liner as Iran’s president won’t affect prospects for reviving the faltering 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. But there are already signs that their goal of locking in a deal just got harder. While the Biden administration maintains nothing has changed, optimism over a potentially imminent agreement fizzled even before the election. In his first public comments since the Friday election, incoming Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi rejected a key Biden goal of expanding on the nuclear deal if negotiators are able to salvage the old one.