WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (Reuters) – The United States will not stand idly by if Iran gets “too close” to obtaining nuclear weapons, the US special envoy said in an interview with excerpts were released on Wednesday, ahead of the resumption of discussions on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The indirect discussions in Vienna to bring the United States and Iran back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), postponed last June in the wake of the Iranian presidential election, must resume next week.
“If they start to get too close (…) then of course we will not sit idly by,” Rob Malley told National Public Radio, according to the extracts broadcast by American radio.
No further commentary on what the US representative means by “too close” or on the options Washington is considering, if any, appears in the excerpts released Wednesday.
US President Joe Biden is working to restore the deal framing Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions, after his predecessor Donald Trump denounced the JCPOA in 2018, pushing Iran to free itself by stages of the terms of the agreement.
If Tehran chooses not to return to the agreement, then “we will obviously have to think of other steps – diplomatic and otherwise – to try to meet Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” Rob Malley said in the interview recorded on Tuesday. and which is due to air on Friday.
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(Reportage by Francois Murphy; French version by Jean Terzian)
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