Blinken Grilled On If Biden Putting Sanctions On Iran Will Stop Them From Trying To Kill Americans

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was pressed on Sunday over whether the Biden administration’s move to put sanctions on Iran in response to an Iranian drone attack on U.S. soldiers would be enough to deter the nation from wanting to kill Americans in the future.

Blinken made the remarks during an appearance on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” with host Margaret Brennan while discussing the Biden administration’s attempts to reign in Iran’s nuclear program.

When asked whether the U.S. would consider military action against Iran to stop their nuclear program, Blinken responded, “Well, as we always say, every option is on the table.”

“But here’s what’s important: Iran, unfortunately, is moving forward aggressively with its program. The time it would take for it to produce enough fissile material for one nuclear weapon is getting shorter and shorter,” Blinken said. “The other thing that’s getting shorter is the runway we have where, if we do get back into compliance with the agreement and Iran gets back into compliance, we actually recapture all of the benefits of the agreement. Iran is learning enough, doing enough, so that’s starting to be a problem.”

“Iran carried out a drone attack on U.S. forces in Syria just last week. Friday, the U.S. announced sanctions related to this program,” Brennan responded. “Do you think sanctions are going to stop Iran from trying to kill Americans?”

Blinken responded, “The president is very much prepared to take whatever action is appropriate at a time and place of our choosing by whatever means are appropriate to prevent and stop Iran from engaging in these activities or its proxies engaging in these activities.”

MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS NEWS HOST: President Biden said negotiations with Iran are scheduled to resume. When? And how long will you give them before their nuclear program is beyond the point of being able to stop?

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, the Iranians have now said that they’re coming back to talks toward the end of November. We’ll see if they actually do. That’s going to be important…

We still believe diplomacy is the best path forward for putting the nuclear program back in the box it had been in under the agreement, the so-called JCPOA. But we were also looking at, as necessary, other options if Iran is not prepared to engage quickly in good faith to pick up where we left off in June when these talks were interrupted by the change

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases