Iran had been prepared to reach an agreement with European officials that would have had the Islamic Republic's enrichment at less than one percent, former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour in an interview on her show The Ex Files this week, co-hosted with former diplomat James Rubin, who sat next to Blinken.
Blinken had even said that the regime was willing to engage in talks on ballistic missiles.
"They had agreed to engage on the question of how you might mount a weapon on a missile, and make sure that there were assurances against that," he said, citing his conversations with European officials.
When asked by Amanpour if this information had been shared with American or Israeli officials, Blinken said he "[didn't] know for sure, but I believe that the European counterparts who were aware of this had been talking directly to the Iranians, shared that information with the United States government."
Blinken also added that the Islamic Republic "is in the weakest position it's been in memory."
The former US official added that Iran's supposed weakened status is the "opportunity to get that better Iran deal that [US President Donald Trump] claimed he wanted," noting the recent US and Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and the weakening of its proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis by Israel.
Nuclear talks during the Obama administration
"You've really got to go back a few years to when Obama had this agreement with Iran that put its nuclear program in a box, and there was a really good reason for doing that, because Iran even without a nuclear weapon is bad enough in terms of the actions it's up to throughout the region," he added. "An Iran with a nuclear weapon would act with even greater impunity in all of those areas.
Blinken, who served as the Deputy National Security Advisor and later the Deputy Secretary of State during the Obama administration, added that the agreement with Iran made during Obama's presidency "bought us 15 years, during which time Iran, in terms of the fissile material it was producing, should it decide to break out of the agreement, would need a year or more to produce enough fissile material for a single nuclear weapon."
Blinken later then criticized Trump, claiming that he didn't provide an alternative to the deal that was brought forth during the Obama administration, saying that, "the result was Iran started moving ahead and enriching its material even further to the point where now, before the recent attack on its program, it was potentially days from getting to that breakout point.
"If you can buy more time, a lot more time with an agreement in a way that gives you greater visibility, learns more about the program and doesn't take away your military option, because at the end of the day, you can still use it or if they cheat, you'll see it and you can use it."