Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged that political considerations — including the 2022 midterm elections — complicated the Biden administration’s efforts to secure a tougher nuclear agreement with Iran, admitting that “sometimes politics gets in the way.”

Speaking at a Harvard forum Tuesday, Blinken said Joe Biden faced pressure from the political calendar as negotiations unfolded.

“You have midterm elections: It shouldn’t be, but it is too often a factor,” Blinken told David Sanger of The New York Times.

His remarks come as Donald Trump and Israel continue aggressive efforts targeting Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, including strikes on senior leadership.

Blinken expressed regret that the administration never finalized what officials had described as a “longer and stronger” follow-on deal to the original Iran nuclear agreement.

“I wish we had gotten there,” Blinken said. “We worked very hard on getting that longer and stronger agreement. And I think at various points, we were really leaning into it.

“The Iranians were leaning back at other points. They were leaning in, and we had our own constraints. You know, I’ll acknowledge, too, that sometimes politics gets in the way.”

When pressed on whether the administration avoided moving forward ahead of elections, Blinken said officials were trying to find the “right time” to complete an agreement, but emphasized that Iran ultimately “wasn’t conceding enough to make that deal worthwhile.”

“So what did we do?” Blinken added. “We actually kept the pressure on them.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)