Anthony Blinken: Iran won’t get nuclear weapons

Washington has not forgotten about the threats made in 2005 by former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Israel with a call to “wipe the country off the face of the earth.” Since then, the United States has constantly obstructed Tehran’s quest to acquire nuclear weapons and support its ally. In this sense, the head of US diplomacy, Anthony Blinken, reiterated on Monday that the Biden administration considers Iran the main threat to Israel and that it will never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.

The tone is set

“If Iran abandons the path of diplomacy, then, as President (Joe) Biden has repeatedly stated, we do not exclude any possibility of ensuring that Iran does not get a “nuclear weapon,” the US Secretary of State assured during a speech in Washington to the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby.

Iran must enrich its uranium reserves to 90%, the threshold required to build an atomic bomb. According to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last March, the uranium particles were enriched by more than 80%. In response, the country was subjected to several acts of sabotage, notably in 2021 at the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.

Since the denunciation of the Vienna Agreement in 2015 by former US President Donald Trump, Iran has been subject to international economic sanctions that are hitting its economy hard. The agreement provided for the restriction of its nuclear program to the civilian dimension.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also called into question the nuclear non-proliferation treaties (NPT). Thus, the acquisition of such deterrent firepower is seen by Tehran as a necessary condition for establishing its power in the region.