US Senator Josh Hawley at the Senate in March 2022
US Senator Josh Hawley Told Iran International Tuesday that the Biden Administration should not return to nuclear talks with Iran and provide sanctions relief.
After a statement by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US intends to continue nuclear talks with Iran, the Republican Senator said, “The Biden admin made a mistake by saying we'll get back to negotiation with Iran and will treat you as a legitimate state. They're not, and we should make that clear.”
After popular nationwide protests broke out in Iran in mid-September, the Biden administration has repeatedly said that Washington’s focus is on solidarity with the protesters and not the nuclear talks that came to an impasse in August.
But the administration has not announced a formal end to the talks and Blinken recently reiterated that the US is still counting on diplomacy with Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear accord known as JCPOA.
“The US should be doing nothing to lend aid to the Iranian regime, and we should be doing all we can to express our solidarity with protesters and saying to the world that the US is not going to help this regime get stronger,” Hawley said.
He added that the intentions of the Iranian regime’s “interests and ambitions in that region are malign, and we ought to be saying that. One of the clearest ways to say that would be to say we're not going to negotiate with them.”