At a press conference in Washington alongside UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Blinken said Iran had long rejected the possibility of reviving the original agreement from 2015, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“The Iranians killed the opportunity to come back to that agreement swiftly many months ago,” he said. “There was an opportunity on the table that they rejected, an opportunity that was approved by all who were involved.”
In 2018, then-US president Donald Trump withdrew from the deal, which traded sanctions relief for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. He then instituted a “maximum pressure” sanctions regime targeting various Iranian sectors, leading Tehran to respond by expanding its nuclear program in violation of the JCPOA. READ MORE
