“We do not have a deal with Iran and prospects for reaching one are, at best, tenuous,” Malley told a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “As of today, the odds of a successful negotiation are lower than the odds of failure and that is because of excessive Iranian demands to which we will not succumb.”
In his testimony, Malley all but confirmed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s announcement on Tuesday that US President Joe Biden has made a final decision to keep Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations list.
Malley told senators that the US would reject “demands that go beyond the scope of the JCPOA,” using the official name for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “We are fully prepared to live with and confront that reality if that is Iran’s choice.”
Malley was pushed by senators from both parties to reveal the administration’s backup plan if negotiations in Vienna fail to restore the nuclear deal. But the special envoy largely dodged the question and avoided offering a timeline for when the US would walk away from the talks. READ MORE
