How containing Iran has become the common denominator for Biden’s first Middle East visit

When US President Joe Biden touches down in Riyadh this week for talks with Arab leaders, the issue of world oil prices amid the war in Ukraine and the Western boycott of Russian hydrocarbons will no doubt feature prominently on the agenda. But so too will the matter of Iran.

White House officials believe that Iran could now possess sufficient fissile material and perhaps even the necessary technology to weaponize and deliver a nuclear payload, handing the regime a powerful bargaining hand in negotiations.

Despite a concerted effort by the Biden administration to coax Iran to comply with the 2015 nuclear deal — abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump in May 2018 — indirect negotiations between the two sides have repeatedly hit a roadblock.