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01/29/2023 01:55 PM EST
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
Cairo, Egypt
U.S. Embassy
QUESTION: (In Arabic.) Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for giving us this exclusive interview. We appreciate your time.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: It’s very good to be with you.
QUESTION: I wanted to start with Iran. The administration said that this is not the right time to go back to the JCPOA. Your President described it as dead. Yet, you don’t prefer the military option. How can you stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: First, Iran had an opportunity to get back into the JCPOA at the end of this past summer. Unfortunately, they rejected what was on the table and had been agreed to by everybody. Their either wouldn’t move forward with it. Now our focus is on the many things that have happened since, including the horrific repression of the Iranian people on the streets of Iran as young people, women in particular, have been standing up for their basic rights, and very important communities across Iranian society are doing the same thing and are being repressed violently by the regime.
At the same time, we’re also seeing Iran support Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine, providing it with drones and potentially other weapons systems. So that’s where the focus is and that’s the concern of many countries around the world.
At the same time, yes, we continue to believe that the most effective way to deal with the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program is through diplomacy. Diplomacy is never off the table. But President Biden has also made clear that we’re determined that Iran not acquire a nuclear weapon, and every option remains on the table to ensure that that doesn’t happen. But our preferred path would be diplomacy.
QUESTION: Including military option?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Everything is on the table.
QUESTION: You talked about the regime. The regime has been executing demonstrators after a sham trial. How can you support people who have been calling for help actually from the West and particularly from the United States?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: We have been, with many other countries, standing up and speaking out for those who are simply trying to have their voices heard and their rights upheld. We’ve gone after those who have been involved in repressing them, and through sanctions, through designating them in various ways. We’ve sought to help the Iranian people be able to continue to communicate with each other as well as with the rest of the world through communications technology. And of course, we continue to look for ways to disrupt the malicious activities that they’re engaged in.
But I think there’s tremendous solidarity around the world with the Iranian people, who are simply trying to have their basic rights respected by the regime.
QUESTION: So is this military maneuvering or exercise with the Israelis and other people in the Gulf meant to deter Iran activities in the region?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: All of our military efforts are designed with the idea of deterrence in mind – that is, to try to make sure that a would-be aggressor thinks twice, thinks three times, and then doesn’t do it. That’s what deterrence is all about. And it’s important to be able to demonstrate that and to make sure that you’re ready if aggression comes. And if deterrence doesn’t work, that you’re also in a position to effectively defend yourself.
QUESTION: The United States always support people who want to change the regime that oppresses them. Why not the case with Iran?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: We support the Iranian people, but these decisions are theirs. They’re not ours. They’re not anyone else’s. One of the things that we don’t want to do is to somehow make this about us. That’s exactly what the Iranian regime wants. They want to say to their own people, “Oh, no, this is somehow the work, the design of some outside power,” the United States or someone else. It’s not. It reflects a profound misunderstanding of their own people if they believe that somehow we’re responsible for this, and it reflects a profound weakness. They’re afraid of their own people.
QUESTION: I want to move to Saudi Arabia. How would you describe the relationship with Saudi Arabia after the OPEC production decision, et cetera, and your threat actually to review the relationship with Riyadh?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: We’ve had a relationship – an important relationship with Saudi Arabia for decades, for generations, across administrations in our own country and across leaders in Saudi Arabia. It’s one that evolves. And from our perspective, the important thing to do is to make sure that that relationship fully reflects our own interests and values, and that is something that’s not static. It’s constantly evolving.
We had the concerns that we expressed about the OPEC+ decision back in October. I think since then we’ve seen Saudi Arabia do some very positive things – for example, providing very significant support, humanitarian support to Ukraine in the face of this Russian aggression; voting for the – in effect – for the UN Charter at the United Nations against the Russian aggression; the work that we’re doing together to try to end the war in Yemen, one of the worst humanitarian situations in the world. That’s very significant, but it’s something that will constantly evolve and we’ll constantly be looking at to make sure that it effectively represents and advances our own interests.
