The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has said the Biden administration must accept that a return to the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA, is not in US interest.

Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said on Wednesday that “Iran now has enough uranium to produce a nuclear weapon. This latest milestone returns us to a familiar question: At what point will the Administration acknowledge that Iran’s nuclear advances make a return to the 2015 JCPOA not in the United States’ strategic interest?” The Politico reporter who quoted Menendez did not say where he made the remarks. 

He also commended the UN’s “International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors’ approval – by an overwhelming majority – of a resolution condemning Iran, saying, “It is high time the board of governors publicly hold Iran to account for its failure to provide credible and timely cooperation with the IAEA’s inquiry into undeclared nuclear materials, which are in contravention of Iran’s safeguard agreement.” 

Of 35 member states on the board, 30 voted in favor of the resolution sponsored by the ‘E3’ (France, Germany, the United Kingdom) and the United States. India, Libya and Pakistan abstained, while Russia and China voted against.

Menendez reiterated that it is time for a comprehensive strategy to address Iran and the threat it poses, “Iran as it is, not the Iran we might hope for.”

“I commend the Biden administration, and France, Germany, and the United Kingdom for introducing this resolution as a first step to realizing such a strategy,” he added.