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LONDON: US President-elect Joe Biden said he is against Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, adding that it is the “last” thing the Middle East region needs, in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday. .
Biden also said his administration will seek to extend the duration of “restrictions on Iran’s production of fissile material that could be used to make a (nuclear) bomb” in any new negotiations on a nuclear deal.
He added that Tehran would have to accept new demands if it were possible to return to an agreement and that it must address its regional “evil” activities through representatives in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
The current president, Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement reached in 2018 and re-imposed heavy sanctions on Iran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamic republic.
Biden, who defeated Trump at the polls last month, said during the campaign that he did not support lifting the sanctions, but intended to offer Iran a “credible path back to diplomacy.”
However, in the NYT interview published Wednesday, he admitted that getting Iran to agree to a modified deal would be “difficult.”
“Look, there’s a lot of talk about precision missiles and a whole host of other things that are destabilizing the region,” Biden said, as quoted as saying.
“The best way to achieve some stability in the region” was to deal “with the nuclear program,” he added.
The president-elect warned that if Iran acquired a bomb, it would provoke a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, and that “the last one. . . What we need in that part of the world is an accumulation of nuclear capacity, “he added.
“In consultation with our allies and partners, we will engage in follow-up negotiations and agreements to tighten and lengthen Iran’s nuclear limitations, as well as address the missile program,” he told the Times.
Biden was quoted as saying that the United States always had the option to revoke sanctions if necessary, and that Iran knew it.
The JCPOA had relieved Iran of sanctions in exchange for curbing its nuclear program.
* With AFP
