Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would not say Wednesday whether the State Department believes the United States should remain party to an international agreement aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Speaking a day after Secretary of Defense James Mattis told lawmakers that remaining in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was in the interest of U.S. national security, Tillerson dodged a question about whether his agency also supported the agreement.
“We’ll have a recommendation for the president,” Tillerson said in an impromptu news conference in Foggy Bottom, which he called to address an NBC News report that the former Exxon chief executive officer had called President Donald Trump a moron, and has considered quitting his post as the top U.S. diplomat. “We’re going to give him a couple of options of how to move forward to advance the important policy toward Iran.”
The JCPOA represents “only a small part” of the U.S.-Iranian relationship, Tillerson told assembled reporters.
He did not say when State would deliver its recommendation to the White House. However, the Trump administration faces a legally binding deadline of Oct. 15 to certify that Iran remains in compliance with the 2015 nuclear nonproliferation agreement.
Tillerson spoke a day after Defense Secretary James Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee the U.S. would do well to remain in the JCPOA. At the same hearing, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, repeated he had seen no evidence Iran had breached its obligations under the agreement.
Mattis, like Tillerson, kept the door open for the U.S. to walk away from the deal.
The Pentagon chief said it might be possible for the U.S. to withdraw from participating in the JCPOA and still fulfill a legal duty to certify to Congress that Tehran is complying with the agreement.
