Full story
Deal Doubt, Bombing Focus
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that “there may not be a nuclear agreement” with Iran, telling ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz that it could instead be “simply destroying their capabilities to do it.”
““there may not be a nuclear agreement” with Iran”
Wright said the United States has already “crippled the country's ability to produce one through its bombing campaign,” adding, “We are degrading their capacity to develop nuclear weapons and ultimately to deliver them.”
He framed the effort as “a 47-year-long effort,” while also saying “An agreement may await the next administration in Iran” and “We simply don't know that.”
The comments came as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran appeared to ramp up again, after the U.S. struck three Iranian oil tankers following Iran’s targeting of two U.S. Navy warships, and Tehran claimed retaliatory strikes on three U.S.-affiliated vessels and three oil tankers.
Wright also said the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports would “either change their regime or it'll change their regime's policies,” linking the pressure campaign to the nuclear end state.
Officials, Strikes, and Retaliation
In the same ABC News interview, Wright defended the shift away from diplomacy by arguing, “You have to destroy their capabilities to do it,” and he added that “They don't have the capability to build more missiles.”
Al Jazeera reported that Wright said “It may be simply destroying their capabilities to do it,” and that he told ABC News’ “This Week” the U.S. could pivot to strikes aimed at Iranian nuclear infrastructure.
The CNBC account placed Wright’s remarks in the context of the U.S.-Iran conflict entering its seventh month, noting that he said “You have to destroy their capabilities to do it” when pressed about whether the U.S. would keep striking.
CNBC also quoted Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf saying Iran’s “proportionate responses” to U.S. attacks are over, while acknowledging the economic impact of the war.
After U.S. Central Command said it permanently disabled one crude oil carrier off the coast of Kharg Island and one near Jask, Admiral Brad Cooper said, “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran's limited and exposed oil fleet.”
Energy Flows and Next Steps
Wright tied the nuclear diplomacy question to the broader pressure campaign, telling ABC News that the U.S. continues to escalate the volume of oil that transits through the Strait of Hormuz while the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is meant to force a change in regime or policy.
“the seven-day average right now is a little over nine million barrels a day”
He said the seven-day average for oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz was “a little over nine million barrels a day,” and that when bypass pipelines through Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are added, “the flow through the -- out of that region is more like 13, 14 million barrels a day.”
The Guardian reported Wright said the U.S. was “always open for a deal” and that the “biggest role” of the U.S. military in the Gulf region was to stop Iranian energy exports.
In the same Guardian account, Wright said, “We’re strangling their economy to try to bring either a change in policy from the existing regime or a new regime,” while also saying the U.S. was “not [at] pre-conflict levels” for merchant shipping through the strait.
The stakes, as framed in the sources, include whether the U.S. can prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon without a signed agreement, with Wright saying “An agreement may await the next administration in Iran” and “We simply don't know that.”