Blinken hints at opposition to Israeli strike on Iran nuclear facilities

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted at his opposition to an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Blinken was pressed on an interview with MSNBC yesterday why Israel shouldn’t take out Iran’s nuclear program once and for all now that Tehran has been significantly weakened.

“You have to look at what would be enduring and what would make sure that the program doesn’t come back. So one of the things you have to assess is: If that were to happen, would Iran simply rebuild and rebuild even deeper underground in a place that would be even harder to get to?” Blinken responds.

Blinken repeats his recent acknowledgement that Iran has accumulated enough fissile material necessary for a nuclear weapon and could upgrade material to bomb-grade quality within a week or so. However, actually developing a weapon would take far longer.

“Iran is going to be faced with decisions of its own of how it wants to move forward, but I think the incoming administration would have an opportunity precisely because Iran’s on its back feet – the – it’s suffering economically in a terrible way,” he says. “Its people are disputing so much of what the regime has done, particularly in meddling in the affairs of other countries throughout the region.”

“This is a moment of opportunity, and maybe a moment of opportunity to resolve in an enduring way the nuclear challenge posed by Iran, but also the actions that Iran takes throughout the region,” Blinken adds.