\u201cIran either couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t do what was necessary to get back into compliance,\u201d says Blinken
\nwashington
\nThe United States on Wednesday clarified that no new nuclear agreement was on the table with Iran, after quiet new diplomacy between the adversaries.
\nSpeaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, \u201cThere is no agreement in the offing, even as we continue to be willing to explore diplomatic paths.\u201d
\n\u201cWe\u2019ll see by their actions,\u201d Blinken said of the future relationship, calling on Iran to choose to \u201cnot take actions that further escalate the tensions\u201d with the US and in the Middle East.
\nPresident Joe Biden took office with hopes of returning to a 2015 nuclear accord with Iran scrapped by his predecessor Donald Trump. But EU-mediated talks collapsed and mass protests in Iran made Washington increasingly hesitant to strike a deal with the clerical state.
\nDiplomats, however, say indirect talks have quietly resumed in recent months with Oman as an intermediary, with the focus largely on the status of US prisoners in Iran.
\nThe talks on restoring the 2015 nuclear accord broke down over disputes on the extent of relief from sweeping US sanctions imposed by Trump and over when Iran would return to compliance by pulling back from countermeasures taken in response to the US withdrawal from the deal.
\nBlinken said the Biden administration had made a \u201cgood-faith effort\u201d with European powers as well as rivals China and Russia to return and that for a time \u201cthat looked possible.\u201d
\n\u201cIran either couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t do what was necessary to get back into compliance,\u201d he said.
\nElsewhere in the region, Blinken has served as a go-between for Israel and Saudi Arabia \u2014 which both have uneasy relations with the US – as they explore establishing relations.
\n\u201cBoth Saudi Arabia and Israel of course are interested in the prospect of normalisation,\u201d said Blinken, who traveled to Saudi Arabia earlier in June.
\n\u201cIt is incredibly challenging, hard, not something that can happen overnight, but it\u2019s also a real prospect and one that we\u2019re working on,\u201d he said.
\nIsrael in 2020 normalised relations with three Arab states \u2014 the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco \u2014 in what both Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu see as a crowning achievement.
\nFor Netanyahu, Saudi recognition would be an ultimate coup due to the country\u2019s size and influence in the Arab world and its status as the guardian of Islam\u2019s holiest sites. The Saudis have called for progress on the rights of the Palestinians.
\nBlinken on Tuesday spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen to make a new call for de-escalation in the West Bank and to voice concern over recent unrest, which has included violence against Palestinian-Americans.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve told our friends and allies in Israel that if there\u2019s a fire burning in their backyard, it\u2019s going to be a lot tougher if not impossible to actually both deepen the existing agreements, as well as to expand them to include potentially Saudi Arabia,\u201d Blinken said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIran either couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t do what was necessary to get back into compliance,\u201d says Blinken washington The United States on Wednesday clarified that no new nuclear agreement was on the table with Iran, after quiet new diplomacy between the adversaries. Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, US Secretary of State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-340471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n