January 22, 2021
The new US administration should not return to the Iran deal because that could spark an arms race in the Middle East, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has said.
“We should not fool ourselves,” the 97-year-old diplomat, consultant and author said. “I don’t believe that the spirit [of the Iran deal], with a time limit and so many escape clauses, will do anything other than bring nuclear weapons all over the Middle East and therefore create a situation of latent tension that sooner or later will break out [into war].”
The current leaders in Iran “don’t seem to find it possible to give up this combination of Islamist imperialism and threat,” Kissinger said January 11. “The test case is the evolution of nuclear capacities in Iran, if these can be avoided.”
“I do not say we shouldn’t talk to them,” he added.