The head of British Foreign Intelligence (MI6) on Thursday expressed doubts that he would be the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei supportive to return to nuclear deal concluded in 2015, despite seeking to resume negotiations on this issue.
“If we can get a deal, it’s probably the best way we have to limit Iran’s nuclear program,” Richard Moore said during the Aspen Security Forum. “I’m not convinced we’ll get there.” “I don’t think the Supreme Leader of Iran wants to reach an agreement. The Iranians also won’t want to end the talks, so they may continue for a while,” he added.
It is the first time that Moore speaks abroad, while participating in the conference, which was held in the US state of Colorado.
US President Joe Biden announced that he supports a return to the 2015 agreement that was negotiated during the era of former President Barack Obama, before Donald Trump removed the United States from it in 2018.
Talks have officially stopped since March, with points of disagreement remaining between Tehran and Washington, despite the concerned parties’ assertion that progress has been made to revive the agreement.
“I think the deal is on the table,” Moore said. “The European powers and the (US) administration are very, very clear regarding it. I don’t think the Chinese and the Russians are going to block this issue. But I don’t think the Iranians want a deal.
At the end of June, Qatar hosted indirect talks between Iran and the United States in an effort to bridge the gap between them, but those talks stopped following two days without achieving any breakthrough.
Israel, for its part, opposes the 2015 agreement and is seeking at all costs to prevent Tehran from acquiring an atomic bomb.
And on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said during a security forum in Aspen, the United States, that Iran, regardless of the nuclear aspect, was already engaged in “malign activities.”
“Should we go to war at the first opportunity? No. Should we be prepared to launch a military operation to prevent it if necessary? The answer is yes. Are we preparing for that? Yes.”
For his part, CIA Director William Burns said that the time needed by Tehran to build an atomic bomb is now measured in “weeks”, while this period was more than a year before the United States withdrew from the Vienna Agreement.
But Burns reassured that “according to our analyzes of the information collected, the Iranians have not resumed the militarization (their nuclear activities) in which they were engaged until 2014”, warning at the same time that “the turn of things is really worrying.”
(AFP)
