US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the United States no longer considers reaching an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program a priority, and warned Tehran of “consequences” for its actions at home and in Russia.
At a press conference in Washington alongside UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Blinken said Iran had long rejected the possibility of reviving the original agreement from 2015, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“The Iranians killed the opportunity to come back to that agreement swiftly many months ago,” he said. “There was an opportunity on the table that they rejected, an opportunity that was approved by all who were involved.”
Iran has cooperation with Russia in the latter’s invasion of Ukraine, while the anti-regime protests have swept the country since mid-September, which Tehran has accused Western powers of orchestrating.
In a video that surfaced last month, Biden said that the prospect of reviving the deal with Iran was “dead,” but that he would not announce this publicly.
