Antony Blinken Says Iran Deal May Require Sanctions Relief as He Warns Against Further Military Escalation
Former U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that a diplomatic settlement with Iran would probably require Washington to offer concessions, including sanctions relief, arguing that further military escalation might still leave Tehran capable of threatening shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
“Any resolution, if it’s a diplomatic one, is probably going to have to give the Iranians something: sanctions relief, something from the Strait itself,” Blinken said at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly in Washington on Sunday, November 8.
He described such an agreement as preferable to further escalation, warning that military pressure alone could not eliminate Iran’s leverage over the strategic waterway.
“Iran can hold at risk ships going through the Strait as long as they want,” he said.
His position contrasted with that of fellow former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who opposed offering Tehran concessions and advocated stronger military and economic pressure.
Turning to Israel and the Palestinians, Blinken rejected both calls for Israel’s disappearance and proposals for a greater Israel built through settlement expansion and Palestinian displacement.
“To those who are advocating from the river to the sea, who want Israel to go away, guess what? It’s not,” he said.
He delivered the same message to supporters of a greater Israel who wanted Palestinians to leave.
“There are 7 million Jews. There are 7 million Arabs and Palestinians. No one is going anywhere,” Blinken said, arguing that neither population could be excluded from the region’s future.
“I believe to the bottom of my heart, as I have throughout, that the only way forward is through a secure Israel and a sovereign Palestine.”
The former secretary of state argued that Israel would never achieve lasting security without recognizing Palestinian rights and addressing the political future of both peoples.
He suggested that a future Palestinian state could be demilitarized, alongside efforts to address radicalization within Palestinian society. Such arrangements would be difficult, he acknowledged, but achievable if the parties were willing.
Blinken also defended Israel’s right to respond to the October 7 attacks while acknowledging the suffering inflicted on Palestinians during the subsequent war in Gaza.
“We have to be able to acknowledge the rightness of Israel’s imperative to respond after October 7th,” he said. “We also have to be able to acknowledge the horror of the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza in the many days thereafter.”
“The Israelis didn’t intend to harm Palestinians. The target was Hamas,” he argued, while acknowledging the devastating consequences for civilians caught in the fighting.