U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Tuesday local time on Tuesday that “the diplomatic channels are open” in terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, but Iran is “although there is still a way to comply with the agreement”.
He declined to talk about whether the Biden administration had any direct contact with Iranian officials.
Blinken told NPR: “For now, diplomatic channels are open.
Iran is still a long way from complying with the agreement. So we will have to watch it.
Asked whether any measures are being taken to resume direct diplomacy, Blinken pointed out that President Biden publicly said that if Iran resumed compliance with the nuclear agreement reached in 2015, the United States would do the same.
He said: “The president has made our position very clear and publicly on many occasions.
We want to see how Iran reacts to this, if any.”
The interviewer pointed out that Blinken did not answer the question directly, and asked, “But don’t you rule out the possibility of direct diplomatic activities in the future?”
Blinken replied, “Well, at some point, if there is any contact on this issue, diplomatic contact must be required.
That’s what we do.”
In 2018, then-US President Trump announced his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement.
The agreement restricts Iran’s uranium enrichment activities to make it more difficult for Tehran to develop nuclear weapons, which Iran has always denied, in exchange for the United States and other countries to relax sanctions against Iran.
