US Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump had a window to barter with Iran, saying the event of a nuclear weapon by Tehran was not inevitable.
The outgoing prime US diplomat acknowledged that the cleric-run state could also be extra severely contemplating a nuclear weapon after navy setbacks within the area.
Within the final yr, Israel’s navy has hit Iranian air defenses and weakened its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, whereas rebels have toppled its major Arab ally in Syria, Bashar al-Assad.
“I do not assume {that a} nuclear weapon is inevitable,” Blinken mentioned on the Council on International Relations in New York.
As “they’ve misplaced totally different traces of protection, positive, you are going to see extra enthusiastic about that,” Blinken mentioned.
However the US secretary of state mentioned Iran was conscious of the results of acquiring a nuclear weapon and added: “I believe there may be the prospect of negotiations.”
Iran denies pursuing a nuclear weapon, saying its contested nuclear work is for peaceable functions.
In his first time period, Trump pulled the US out of a 2015 nuclear cope with Tehran that was negotiated underneath former president Barack Obama, after which imposed sweeping sanctions.
“President Trump final time round in pulling out of the deal mentioned that he wished, as he known as it, a greater, stronger deal. High-quality,” Blinken mentioned.
He mentioned that no US administration would permit Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.
“A technique or one other, I am satisfied that simply as our administration had that coverage, the subsequent administration will too,” he mentioned of stopping Iran from creating a nuclear weapon.
US President Joe Biden’s administration on taking workplace in 2021 entered oblique talks with Iran to revive the nuclear deal.
Talks collapsed largely over disputes on the scope of US sanctions aid and Biden has backed strain on Iran over its assist for Palestinian armed group Hamas since its October 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk reportedly met with a senior Iranian official following the US election in a bid to encourage calm.
Blinken additionally rejected requires the US to work to topple the federal government of Iran, which has opposed Washington for the reason that overthrow of its US-backed ruler in a well-liked rebellion in 1979.
“I believe if we take a look at the final 20 years, our experiments in regime change haven’t precisely been resounding successes,” Blinken mentioned.
Blinken acknowledged home opposition to Iran’s present cleric-run state construction, however mentioned it was not “fairly as clear-cut as that.”
Opposition is “reflective of at the least half the inhabitants, however not everything of it,” he mentioned, pointing to variations between cities and rural areas.
“There is a very conservative factor in Iran that is vital in quantity that most likely stays beholden to the regime,” he mentioned.
