'Getting Closer' To Abandoning Iran Nuclear Deal: US Secretary Of State

The 2015 nuclear deal offered Iran an easing of Western and UN sanctions in return for tight controls on its nuclear programme, monitored by the UN.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that time was running out for Iran to return to a nuclear deal, after a scathing report by the UN atomic watchdog and Tehran's signals that it would take a while to return to talks. The International Atomic Energy Agency released a strongly-worded report Tuesday saying monitoring tasks in Iran have been "seriously undermined" after Tehran suspended some of the UN agency's inspections of its nuclear activities. After ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi took over as new president of the country, Iran had also suggested that talks aimed at reviving the stalled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) were unlikely to resume for two to three months. "I'm not going to put a date on it but we are getting closer to the point at which a strict return to compliance with the JCPOA does not reproduce the benefits that that agreement achieved," Blinken told reporters in Germany in response to a question on the point at which it would no longer be possible to return to a deal.