The Biden administration’s accelerating pace of concessions to Tehran suggests that the regime has once again fooled Joe Biden.

But while the Islamic Republic likes to project an image of strength, it has seldom been weaker. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s inevitable death overshadows Iranian politics. While many policymakers often assume the Middle East is young, Iran is the exception: Its fertility rate continues to plummet as Iranians both defer marriage and divorce at alarming rates. A special Iranian parliamentary commission warned in November 2020 that Iran only had five years left to reverse the trend before a demographic death spiral set in. Khamenei himself has often warned about Iran’s demographic decline.