U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a briefing this morning claimed that Iran could be weeks away from having the material needed for producing a nuclear weapon, if it continues to lift the restraints of the 2015 nuclear deal. Blinken warned that President Joe Biden is building a strong team to seek a “longer and stronger” nuclear deal with Iran than the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that was signed in 2015 by the Obama Administration, together with the United Kingdom, China, Russia, France, Germany and the European Union.
Iran’s Speaker of Parliament (Majles) Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf told an open session of the Majles in Tehran that Secretary Blinken’s remarks were “disappointing. ... If the U.S. believes in the nuclear deal, it should display its commitment to it in practice, instead of seeking preconditions.”
In an interview aired on the Today Show, taped yesterday with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, Blinken said the Biden Administration is considering new sanctions against North Korea and Russia, with the aim of denuclearizing North Korea. He also said that new diplomatic initiatives were being used, without specifying what they were.
In the same interview, Blinken also named a number of actions by Russia as causes for new sanctions, including President Vladimir Putin’s alleged poor treatment of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny; Russia’s interference in the 2020 election (which Biden won?), the SolarWinds hack, and the alleged Russian bounties for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan. “The President could not have been clearer in his conversation with President Putin,” Blinken told NBC.