(Bloomberg) --
Iran has signaled it will restart nuclear negotiations with Europe “toward the end of November,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday.
“We'll see if they actually do,” Blinken said in an interview with CBS News. “That's going to be important.”
Blinken's comments provide more of a time frame for when talks might start again, after Iranian officials said only they wanted to resume by the end of November. On Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden met with the leaders of the U.K., France, and Germany to discuss the talks and said they were “scheduled to resume” without providing additional detail.
A revived deal would allow Iran to return to global oil markets while putting limits on its nuclear program. The West suspects the work is aimed at making a bomb. Iran denies this.
Blinken said the U.S. was still hopeful that it could convince Tehran to resume compliance with the Obama-era nuclear deal, which Iran exited after former President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would re-impose sanctions in violation of the agreement. But Blinken also said the U.S. was “looking at, as necessary, other options if Iran is not prepared to engage quickly in good faith.”
Asked if that could include military action, Blinken said that “every option is on the table.”
The U.S. and the European governments involved in the diplomacy “do not yet know whether Iran is willing to come back and to engage in a meaningful way and get back into compliance,” Blinken said on CNN's “State of the Union” on Sunday. “If it isn't, if it won't, then we are looking together at all of the options necessary to deal with this problem.
Taiwan Commitment
Asked about Biden's comment on Oct. 21 that the U.S. has “a commitment” to come to Taiwan's defense in case of an attack by China, Blinken said there's no change in longstanding U.S. policy.
Biden has long “made clear that we will do everything necessary to make sure that Taiwan has the means to defend itself,” he told CNN.
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