Blinken Says Revival of Iran Nuclear Deal Soon Is ‘Unlikely’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a revived nuclear deal with Iran in the near future is “unlikely,” based on Iran’s response to the European Union’s proposal for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

“What we’ve seen over the last week or so in Iran’s response to the proposal put forward by the European Union is clearly a step backward and makes prospects for an agreement in the near term, I would say, unlikely,” Blinken said on Monday during a visit to Mexico City.

Over the weekend, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, known as the E3 countries, issued a joint statement raising “serious doubts on Iranian intentions and commitment to a successful outcome” of the negotiations. Iran earlier this month sent its latest response to the European Union’s proposed text to revive the agreement. Iran has demanded that the IAEA probe into the undeclared sites be closed as a condition for signing on to an updated nuclear agreement with the world powers.

Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with the P5+1 group of world powers – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US) plus Germany – in July 2015. The agreement calls for Iran to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. Many of the agreement’s provisions, including the limits set on Iran’s enrichment of uranium, were to expire after 15 years. Former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to violate its own commitments under the pact. Talks on reviving the agreement first began in April 2021.