News / Foreign Policy

Biden's security aide: Iran's nuclear program top US priority

Saturday, 30 January 2021 3:16 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 31 January 2021 11:46 AM ]

This photo taken on November 24, 2020 shows then-nominated National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaking at an event in Wilmington, Delaware.

US President Joe Biden's top security aide has expressed concerns about Iran's peaceful nuclear program, repeating baseless US claims that Tehran is moving towards building a nuclear weapon.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday that a top priority of the Biden administration is dealing with an escalating nuclear crisis.

Sullivan, who was speaking on an online program sponsored by the US Institute of Peace, claimed that Iran intends to build a weapon.

“From our perspective, a critical early priority has to be to deal with what is an escalating nuclear crisis as they (Iran) move closer and closer to having enough fissile material for a weapon,” he said.

“We would like to reestablish some of the parameters and constraints around their program that have fallen away over the course of the past few years,” Sullivan added.

Political analysts had predicted that the Biden administration will likely be taking its lead from Israel in regard to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from in 2018.

Iranian political commentator Tohid Asadi believes the policy of the new US administration on Iran is very much the same as that of the Trump administration and that the only difference is in the rhetoric used.

Biden's administration's stance toward Iran same as Trump's: Analyst

Political commentator Tohid Asadi believes the policy of the new US administration on Iran is very much the same as that of the Trump administration.

Under the JCPOA deal, which was signed during the tenure of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama when Biden was the vice president, Tehran had agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Sullivan's comments were made despite repeated assurances by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, confirming that Tehran will never spend its resources on developing a nuclear weapon.

Leader: Iran won’t build, store, use nukes forbidden by Islam

Ayatollah Khamenei says why should Iran ever spend its resources on building and stockpiling nuclear weapons when it is strictly prohibited by the religion of Islam.

Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations says Biden's administration must “swiftly” remove the sanctions slapped on Iran as a first step in restoring Washington’s “shattered credibility,” warning that any delay in this regard will signal “continued animosity” and “insincerity” towards the Iranian nation.

After the Trump administration imposed new sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal’s limits on its nuclear development.

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