Joe Biden approved the prisoner exchange with Iran because he wants to avoid a crisis in the Middle East. The US President’s realpolitik is correct – but he must be careful not to legitimize the regime in Tehran.
Hard to escape these images. They put their arms over each other’s shoulders, three of the five Americans released from Iran. So they walked across the tarmac at Doha airport, their stopover on the way to the USA, free after years of imprisonment in Tehran’s Evin Prison. One of them said he was looking forward to nature, to the leaves of the American autumn. “Leaves instead of walls,” he said.