and to make sure, that we can put that problem to the side. as we do with so many other issues that iran presents to us. so no, we have not reached that point, but i think it is very clear that if we do not reach a deal soon that point will have been reached. and then we will have to think about other ways to address iran s nuclear program. it is our european partners, the best way forward, to try and get back into the deal, if iran is prepared to do its share and come back within full compliance of its obligations. let me play for you another clip, if i can, from the un assembly last fall. he had this to say about iran s nuclear capability at the time. ron snugly a program has hit a watershed moment. and so has our tolerance. words do not stop centrifuges from spinning.
specific quote that he used of the. he is trying to make you sound pretty hopeless. obviously, that is not the case. senator menendez visual aid this week seemed that it was reminding of a similar 1:10 years ago. what do you say to bob an end as there and him using his quote. we have a lot of respect and worked very closely on chairman menendez with all issues. we know he was unemployment. we respect that you. we continue to talk to him about it. and the quote was, that at this pace, if we continue, we are trying to revive it would be tantamount to reviving that corpse. president biden still wants us to negotiate in vienna. we are going back next week. that is a sign of our continued belief that it is not a dead corpse. that we need to revive. because it is in our interest. it is the best way we have, to put iran s nuclear program back in a box.
equipment, field hospitals, blood supplies into the area surrounding ukraine and particularly in belarus, near kyiv, this is not the eastern ukraine that russia has already occupied, this is posing more of a danger to the ukrainian capital, which is west in the country. these are the kinds of just facts on the ground that are leading president biden and others in the u.s. to conclude that an invasion could well be eminent. i appreciate this is sensitive stuff you have information about, thank you for giving us clarity about that. you are on the foreign relations committee, you and other members had a briefing on where iran s nuclear program stands now after donald trump withdrew the u.s. from the deal in 2018. i spoke to chris murphy the other night, your colleague, here s what he told me. i walked out of that briefing really concerned. the amount of time right now that it would take iran to get a
we saw what happened with iran s nuclear deal. and the campaign did the opposite. iran s nuclear program accelerated. our priority is to get back into the deal and we re prepared to do our deal and those sanctions reimposed by president trump and inconsistent with the deal. if iran chooses a different path, of course we will use the tools we have to put pressure on iran to ensure they can t acquire a bomb. keeping the door open for diplomacy but using other tools to ensure that iran can t move towards acquiring a bomb. so that s going to be our policy. we will work with all our partners to achieve it. we have differences with israel but we re working hand in glove with them to make sure our common interests are defended even if we have these views of getting back into the jcpoa. but over the last several weeks, we have had almost every day senior former senior israeli
that in those cases president biden and our allies would have the ability to leverage that. in other words, they could hold off imposing those in an effort to keep ukraine from being further invaded. so even if we were to do this, there would be ample authority with the administration to use that as leverage in their diplomacy. i want to turn to another foreign policy issue. iran. senators got a briefing from senior officials yesterday on iran s nuclear program. some of your colleagues, senator, said after the briefing they were concerned by what they heard. i know you can t talk about what was actually said. how did you feel coming out away from that briefing? well, it is a matter of urgent concern. there is no question that iran today is closer to a nuclear weapon since president trump made the decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement. that s pretty much a universal view that it was a mistake for