Jake Sullivan, U.S. national security advisor, suggested an expedited timeline for rejoining the Iranian nuclear deal, which the Trump administration exited in May 2018. The comments come as the Biden administration announced its decision to select veteran diplomat Robert Malley as its special envoy on Iran talks.
In remarks to the U.S. Institute of Peace on Jan. 29, Sullivan said that it was key for the United States to put the nuclear program “in a box” as the first order of business.
“We are going to have to address Iran’s other bad behavior, malign behavior, across the region, but from our perspective, a critical early priority has to be to deal with what is an escalating nuclear crisis as they move closer and closer to having enough fissile material for a weapon,” said Sullivan, according to The Washington Post. “And we would like to make sure that we re-establish some of the parameters and constraints around the program that have fallen away over the course of the past two years.”
In recent weeks, Iran has begun to accelerate its nuclear program. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said last week that Tehran will not reverse the acceleration of its nuclear program until the United States lifts sanctions against the country. Iran recently announced that it had begun enriching uranium to 20 percent, in violation of the nuclear accord.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken has been more skeptical of swiftly returning to the nuclear deal, saying that a U.S. return is still far off.
In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, also warned that Iran could be months or even only “a matter of weeks” from developing a nuclear bomb if it further violates restrictions stemming from the 2015 accord.
No comments:
Post a Comment