US warns of ‘escalating’ Iran crisis, seeks return to nuclear deal

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told an event that Tehran is moving closer to having enough material for a nuclear weapon

Rob Malley, who served on the Obama administration team that negotiated the original Iran nuclear deal, will serve as an envoy to the Islamic Republic

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Iranian President Hassan Rowhani has reportedly said Iran will return to its obligations when the US returns to the nuclear deal and lifts sanctions. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 2:46pm, 30 Jan 2021Updated: 2:46pm, 30 Jan 2021

Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, warned of “an escalating nuclear crisis” with Iran as the Biden administration seeks to salvage the multinational agreement that former US president Donald Trump abandoned.

Tehran is moving “closer and closer to having enough fissile material” for a nuclear weapon, Sullivan said at an event at the US Institute of Peace on Friday. Returning to the deal intended to limit Iran’s nuclear programme is a “critical early priority” for the new administration, he said.

“We would like to re-establish some of the parameters and constraints around their programme that have fallen away over the course of the past few years,” Sullivan said.

The White House announced on Friday that Rob Malley, who served on the Obama administration team that negotiated the original Iran deal, would serve as an envoy to the Islamic Republic.

The administration has called on Iran to return to compliance under the deal, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki saying there was an opportunity to build on the existing agreement if Iran undertakes “the significant nuclear constraints” already negotiated.

The Institute of Peace event also featured Sullivan’s predecessor, Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien.

Sullivan’s remarks on Iran were a moment of obvious friction between the men at an event intended to signal continuity in US foreign policy despite the acrimonious transition that saw Trump refuse to accept his electoral defeat and his supporters storm the US Capitol.