Biden embraces Trump accords, but struggles with his withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal amid growing threat

Biden still prefers diplomacy to deal with Iran's nuclear program, Blinken said.

There have been major differences between the administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden on foreign policy -- not least over the Iran nuclear deal, with Biden officials blaming Trump's withdrawal for bringing Iran closer to a nuclear weapon today than before.

But even as Biden's top diplomat warned more starkly than ever about the threat from Iran and the need to salvage the nuclear deal Wednesday, there was some consistency: Secretary of State Antony Blinken embraced the set of key Trump-era deals known as the Abraham Accords.

Those historic agreements saw Israel establish relations with some of its Arab neighbors -- starting with the United Arab Emirates and extending, in varying degrees, to Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

The deals were controversial in some corners not just because they sidelined the Palestinians and did nothing to address long-simmering tensions there, but also because of the big-ticket incentives Trump offered to sweeten the pot for Arab countries, including selling the most advanced U.S. fighter jet, the F-35, to UAE; recognizing Morocco's claim to Western Sahara; and even offering to pay the Sept. 11 attacks victims to make legal claims against Sudan go away.