Top Biden administration officials warned Sunday that Iran‘s nuclear program is “starting to be a problem” and that the U.S. and its allies have limited time to strike a deal with Tehran before it stockpiles enough material for a nuclear bomb.
Speaking Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the administration is hopeful that all sides can come back into compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a 2015 pact that limited Iran‘s nuclear weapons program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
President Biden confirmed Saturday that talks with Iran, which have been on hold since June, are set to resume.
But officials acknowledge they have little time to spare. Mr. Blinken said the U.S. and its allies are considering other options — presumably including military action — if diplomacy is unsuccessful and Iran‘s nuclear program reaches an even more dangerous phase.
“We still believe diplomacy is the best path forward for putting the nuclear program back in the box that had been in under the agreement, the so-called JCPOA. But we were also looking at, as necessary, other options if Iran is not prepared to engage quickly in good faith, to pick up where we left off in June,” Mr. Blinken said.
“Every option is on the table, but here’s what’s important: Iran, unfortunately, is moving forward aggressively with its program. The time it would take for it to produce enough fissile material for one nuclear weapon is getting shorter and shorter,” he said. “The other thing that’s getting shorter is the runway we have, where, if we do get back into compliance with the agreement, and Iran gets back into compliance, we actually recapture all of the benefits of the agreement. Iran is learning enough, doing enough, so that that’s starting to be a problem.”
Former President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA in 2018, arguing that the deal didn’t do enough to stop Iran‘s uranium-enrichment efforts. Mr. Trump and fellow Republicans also have maintained that any potential agreement with Iran must address other behavior, such as Tehran‘s continued support of terrorism, including its financial backing of groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Iran also supports militias that regularly target American troops stationed in Iraq and Syria. The White House last week imposed new economic sanctions on two entities and four individuals connected to drone attacks by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, including attacks against U.S. forces. But it’s unclear whether the administration is prepared to make that issue part of new talks with Iran or if the White House will continue its policy of keeping nuclear negotiations entirely separate from other matters.
Meanwhile, Mr. Blinken stressed that the other signatories of the JCPOA — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — are united in the effort to revive the agreement and reimpose limits of Iran‘s nuclear ambitions. Multilateral talks are expected to resume soon in Vienna, though an exact date has not been set.
The earlier round of talks ended in June, when new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi came to power.
Iranian officials have confirmed that talks are set to resume, but they also blasted the most recent round of U.S. sanctions and suggested that those sanctions will make talks with the Biden administration more difficult.
“Such U.S. measures are in continuation of the Trump administration’s failed ‘maximum pressure’ policy and the country’s unlawful and cruel sanctions,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Friday. “These pressures and sanctions will fail to undermine the Islamic Republic of Iran’s determination to defend [its] security and peace of the noble Iranian people. Tehran will continue the path of sustainable economic development with strength.”