US Envoy: Must Prepare Iran Having No Limits On Nuclear Programme

Speaking to the Carnegie Europe, US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley states that the US must be prepared "for a world where Iran doesn't have constraints on its nuclear program and we have to consider options for dealing with that. This is what we are doing while we hope they do go back to the deal"

• Says with each day that passes it is an indication that Tehran does not want to go back to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA).
• Jeff Seldin at VOA News tweets some of Malley's comments: "Everything that people who are worried about what they're seeing from Iran's nuclear program, and rightfully worried...all of that is in violation of the deal that Iran has been respecting until the US withdrew...The Biden administration put on the table ideas which meant if Iran had negotiated and had they reached this understanding, all of the sanctions that were inconsistent with the JCPaA would have been lifted and would have been lifted very quickly...That was the most important step that the [Biden] administration could have taken"
• "That's the choice that Iran faces: are they prepared to go back to that [JCPOA without the new sanctions] or do they want to choose a different path?...If Iran wants sanctions relief, and we know that we want to see Iran's nuclear program with the constraints that were imposed by the nuclear deal...that remains the equation"
• Crucial player remains Israel. Malley acknowledges Israel is not keen on the deal, but says that there is more debate on the issue in Israel now than there was when the US pulled out of the JCPoA in 2018.