‘The runway getting shorter’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed warnings Thursday that time was running out for Iran to return to a nuclear deal, saying it was up to Tehran to act. “The ball remains in their court, but not for long,” Blinken told reporters in Pittsburgh where he took part in US-EU trade talks. “There is a limited runway on that, and the runway is getting shorter.” Blinken reiterated that President Joe Biden was willing to return the United States to a 2015 accord in which Iran drastically scaled back nuclear work in return for promises of economic relief. Former president Donald Trump trashed the deal known formally as the JCPOA and reimposed sweeping sanctions, which Iran wants removed before it undoes a series of steps out of compliance that it took to protest the pressure campaign. “Simply getting back to the terms of the JCPOA at some point will not be sufficient to recapture the benefits of the agreement because of the progress Iran has made,” Blinken said. On a visit to France, which remains in the nuclear deal, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that analytical work by Tehran will end soon. “I assume that in a few weeks we are in a position to set a date with our friends in Europe,” he told a gathering in Caen.
