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QUESTION: Okay. Can I start with Iran?

MR PRICE: Yes.

QUESTION: So you will have seen probably that the head of the IAEA is going to Tehran. You may have also – at least I hope you have – seen that Rouhani has said that if you guys gradually back into meeting your – meeting the obligations of the deal, that they will also do it. And I know, and please don’t say that you’re not going to negotiate it from the podium, but, I mean, is this something that is acceptable to you, I mean, or is it just something that is just out of – it’s just not going to work? It’s all or nothing.

MR PRICE: Sorry, the antecedent – what is the “this?”

QUESTION: The – if they return gradually, then you will return gradually.

MR PRICE: Yeah. Well, let me just start – because you referenced Iran and the IAEA, so let me just start with a bit of context. And, of course, we are aware of Iran’s threat to cease the provisional application of its Additional Protocol obligations as well as other inspections provided for under the 2015 deal, the JCPOA. This, of course, comes on top of other steps Iran has taken that exceed, go beyond what the JCPOA allows in terms of limits on its nuclear programs.

The good news, of course, is that all of these steps are reversible and the path for diplomacy remains open. And I would say that as we and our partners have underscored, Iran should reverse these steps and refrain from taking others that would impact the IAEA assurances on which not only the United States, not only our allies and partners in the region, but the entire world relies. Iran should provide full and timely cooperation with the IAEA.

Of course, the proposition that you have heard from this podium, that you have heard from the President of the United States, that you have heard from Secretary Blinken, it of course remains on the table: If Iran resumes its full compliance with the deal, we will do the same. Importantly, as you have also heard us say, that the deal for us, it is a floor, it’s not a ceiling, and we want to go beyond the 2015 deal, lengthen and strengthen it, and build on it with follow-on arrangements to address other areas of concern when it comes to our relationship with Iran and concern that our allies and partners share, including Iran’s ballistic missile program.

So, of course, the path for diplomacy remains there. We hope to be able to pursue it together with our allies and partners.

QUESTION: So the previous administration, before the former president pulled out of the deal in 2018, but there was a year, almost a year – 14 months in between then when the previous administration tried to do exactly what you’re talking about, which was to lengthen and strengthen and to go on to – to go beyond that to get into missile activity and what they term malign activity in the region. How is it that you – that you think that your – this administration is going to do that any differently? Because the previous administration was not successful in its attempts and they tried pretty hard.

MR PRICE: Well, you’re right about that. You are also right about the fact that – I guess you didn’t say this explicitly, but I will – when the JCPOA was in place, the breakout time – that is, the time that Iran would require to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon – was 12 months. Published reports today put that at much closer to a few months, although those reports vary. But we know that Iran is heading in the wrong direction when it comes to that, and so that’s why we are so insistent as the JCPOA, with its verifiable – with its permanent limits on Iran’s nuclear program, with the inspections that it affords not only the United States, again, but the international community – that’s why it’s so important for us that this be the floor and not the ceiling.

Now, when it comes to our approach, I think what I would point to that distinguishes our approach in the context of Iran, but also in the context of just about any other challenge we face, is that we understand that we need to bring our allies and partners along with us. The Secretary, the President of the United States, others in this administration – to include the Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley – they have spent the past few weeks working the phones, working the VTC, ensuring that we are addressing this challenge in lockstep with our allies and partners. We know that for every challenge we face, our partners and our allies are going to be force multipliers.

When it comes to the challenge of Iran, we entered into this deal in 2015 in the context of the P5+1. Those partners and allies are indispensable to this effort. Of course, there’ll be an E3 meeting tomorrow. I would expect – E3 meeting tomorrow, yes. I would expect Iran to be a topic of discussion there, but it’s just one element of that coordination with our partners and allies. I think if – we can’t be successful if we don’t have that coordination. It is a necessary but insufficient element of our approach, but we are getting the fundamentals right, or at least we’re in the course of doing that. And that’s why we focus so concertedly on that coordination.

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