Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
US, Israeli and EU officials took a tough line toward Iran on Wednesday, with US officials saying they would consider all options if Tehran failed to revive the 2015 nuclear deal and Israel saying it reserved the right to act.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has so far refused to resume indirect talks with the United States in Vienna on both sides returning to compliance with the deal, under which Iran curbed its nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief.
“We will look at every option to deal with the challenge posed by Iran,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a joint news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed.
“If the Iranians don’t believe the world is serious about stopping them, they will race to the bomb. Israel reserves the right to act at any given moment in any given way,” Lapid said. Israel has previously bombed nuclear sites in Iraq and Syria.
US officials stressed it was still Washington’s preference for the United States, which abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018 during the Trump administration, and Iran, which began violating its nuclear limits about a year later, to resume compliance.
Iran struck the deal in 2015 with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. The last round of Vienna talks took place in June and, Iran, beyond saying they would resume “soon,” has not set a new date.
Iran has long denied any ambition to acquire nuclear weapons.
A Western diplomat on Wednesday said he thought the earliest talks might happen was in
