Trump official says ‘there may not be a nuclear agreement’ with Iran

As the United States and Iran resume trading attacks, a top US official has publicly downplayed the chances of one of President Donald Trump’s initial key objectives in the US and Israel’s war on Iran: getting a signed nuclear agreement .

During an interview on Sunday with US channel ABC News, the US Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, said “there may not” be a nuclear deal, signalling that the US may pivot instead to launching strikes against any Iranian efforts to build nuclear infrastructure.

“It may be simply destroying their capabilities to do it,” Wright said on ‘ABC This Week’ about Iran’s ambitions to obtain a nuclear weapon.

The US has previously targeted facilities it said had been used to support Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran has always maintained that it is developing a nuclear power programme only and does not have plans to build a nuclear weapon.

Later, when pressed by the show’s co-host, Martha Raddatz, on whether the US would resort to continued bombing instead of diplomacy, Wright defended US actions in Iran.

“They don’t have the capability to build more missiles,” Wright said. “We’re degrading their capacity to develop nuclear weapons and, ultimately, to deliver them if they develop them.”

However, the former oil executive whose agency oversees the US stockpile of nuclear weapons said that a deal with Iran could be possible under new leadership.

“An agreement may await the next administration in Iran,” he said. “We simply don’t know that.”