White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday that the reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is not a current focus of the Biden administration.
Kirby said the United States remains committed to ensuring Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons and that President Joe Biden “still believes that a diplomatic solution to that would be highly preferable.”
But Kirby said Iran was not negotiating in good faith and has shown “no inclination to move in that direction.”
The nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018 due to what then-President Donald Trump said were terms too favorable to Iran. The Iranians reacted by stepping away from their commitments under the deal; employing more advanced centrifuges, enriching uranium to higher levels and keeping larger stockpiles of enriched uranium.
Kirby said part of the lack of prioritizing the issue at the White House is “domestic strife” in Iran as well as Iran’s role in supporting Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
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