President Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken says despite the fact Iran is funding multiple known terrorist groups across the globe the U.S. may still repeal Trump-era sanctions. During an interview with ABC News George Stephanapolous Blinken stopped short of saying Iran, the world’s top sponsor of terrorist organizations, helped fund recent Hamas attacks against Israel.
The Daily Wire reports:
“Your administration is continuing to pursue nuclear negotiations with Iran, but 42 Republican senators have called on the president to end the negotiations, make it clear that sanctions will remain in place because of Iranian funding of Hamas. Do you believe that Iran is funding Hamas? And if they are, should the sanctions stay in place?” asked the host.
“You know, George, Iran is engaged in a number of activities, including funding extremist groups, supporting terrorism more broadly, supporting very dangerous proxies that are taking destabilizing actions throughout the Middle East, proliferating weapons, and two things on that. One, an Iran with a nuclear weapon or with the capability to build one in very short order is going to act with even greater impunity in those areas, which just adds to the urgency of trying to put the nuclear problem back in the box that the nuclear agreement put it in,” said Blinken.
“The Iranians say the decision to raise — to lift some of the sanctions has already been made. Is that true?” Stephanopoulos pressed.
“We have been now over — we’re about to have our, I think, fifth round of discussions in Vienna with the Iranians,” Blinken replied. “And what these discussions and talks, indirect, as you know, have done is they’ve clarified what each sides needs to do in order to come back into compliance. So we know what sanctions would need to be lifted if they’re inconsistent with the nuclear agreement, but as important and indeed more important, Iran, I think, knows what it needs to do to come back into compliance on the nuclear side. And what we haven’t seen is whether Iran is ready and willing to make a decision to do what it has to do. That’s the test and we don’t yet have an answer.”
Former President Trump issued a number of sanctions against Iran as well as pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal. However now, the Biden administration in talks to re-enter the agreement.
