Time To Prepare For 'Unconstrained Nuclear Iran'

Biden’s Iran Special Envoy Warns: ‘Prepare’ for Unconstrained Nuclear Iran

Joshua Klein

As Iran deal negotiations continue to stall, the Biden administration is preparing for a world where the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program has no constraints, according to U.S. special envoy for Iran Robert Malley.

In a virtual discussion Wednesday concerning the future of U.S. relations with Iran hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Malley attacked the previous administration, casting blame on President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal and claiming that “we didn’t need to be here.”

Yet despite U.S. overtures, including the willingness to “remove all of the sanctions that were imposed by the Trump administration,” he lamented that “the Iranians have refused to have direct communication [and] direct contact with us,” adding, “everything has been done through intermediaries.”

Malley also warned that Iran successfully achieving nuclear capabilities in the near future is a realistic scenario.

“We have to prepare for a world … where Iran doesn’t have constraints on its nuclear program,” he said, adding that options are being considered to “deal with” such a scenario even as the Biden administration seeks a return to the Iran deal. 

“And we have to consider options to deal with that — which is what we’re doing — even as we hope that we can get back to the deal that is by far our preference,” he noted.

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