Iran nuclear deal ‘not our focus right now’: Ned Price

• The U.S. State Department says restoring the Iran nuclear agreement is “not our focus right now”.
• Washington is instead focusing on how to support Iranian demonstrators.
• The protests were sparked by the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iran’s morality police detention.

Wednesday, the United States stated that restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement is “not our focus right now,” citing Tehran’s lack of interest in restarting the pact and the fact that Washington is focusing on how to support Iranian demonstrators.

Ned Price, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said in response to a question about whether the United States was interested in reviving the agreement under which Iran restricted its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, “that’s not our focus right now.

“It is very clear, and the Iranians have made very clear that this is not a deal that they have been prepared to make. The deal certainly does not appear imminent,” Ned Price stated at a briefing.

“Nothing we’ve heard in recent weeks suggests they have changed their position. And so right now our focus … is on the remarkable bravery and courage that the Iranian people are exhibiting through their peaceful demonstrations,” he stated.

“Our focus right now is on shining a spotlight on what they’re doing and supporting them in the ways we can,” he said, referring to anti-government rallies sparked by the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iran’s morality police detention on September 16.

In 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally reinstated economic sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy by restricting its oil exports.

A year later, Tehran responded by steadily breaking the deal’s nuclear constraints, raising U.S., Israeli, and Gulf Arab worries that Iran may be attempting to obtain an atomic weapon, despite Iran’s denials of such an objective.

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