US Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not rule out a military intervention to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons capabilities during an interview on Sunday with CBS News public affairs program "Face the Nation."
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Speaking from the G20 summit in Rome, the top US diplomat said his country was "looking at, as necessary, other options if Iran is not prepared to engage quickly in good faith" to return to talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.
The show's moderator, Margaret Brennan, asked Blinken if other options include the military option.
"Well, as we always say, every option is on the table," the secretary of state replied.
In a separate interview with CNN, meanwhile, Blinken said the United States was "absolutely in lockstep" with Britain, Germany and France on getting Iran back into the nuclear deal, but he added it was unclear if Tehran was willing to rejoin the talks in a "meaningful way."
Blinken's remarks came a day after the United States, Germany, France and Britain urged Iran to resume compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal in order to "avoid a dangerous escalation."
"It really depends on whether Iran is serious about doing that," Blinken said on Iran rejoining the nuclear talks. "All of our countries, working by the way with Russia and China, believe strongly that that would be the best path forward," he added.
The nuclear deal is not the only point of contention between Iran and the United States. On Friday, the United States issued a fresh round of Iran-related sanctions tied to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps drone program that it said threatened regional stability.
US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the United States will "respond" to actions Iran has taken against Washington's interests, including drone strikes on US military bases in the region, most recently in Syria.
American, French, British and German leaders said on Saturday they wanted a negotiated solution.
"But we do not yet know whether Iran is willing to come back to engage in a meaningful way," Blinken said on Sunday. "But if it isn't, if it won't, then we are looking together at all of the options necessary to deal with this problem."
Iran's foreign minister said separately on Sunday that if the United States was serious about rejoining Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Biden could just issue an "executive order," the state-owned Iran newspaper reported.
"It is enough for Biden to issue an executive order tomorrow and they [the US] announce they are rejoining the pact from the point where his predecessor left the deal," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said. "If there is a serious will in Washington to return to the deal, there is no need for all these negotiations at all."
Talks between Iran and world powers aimed at salvaging the deal, which started in April, are slated to resume at the end of November, the Islamic republic's top nuclear negotiator said on Wednesday.
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