US ENERGY SECRETARY SIGNALS NUCLEAR DEAL WITH IRAN UNLIKELY

Chris Wright, US Energy Secretary, said on Sunday that the United States may not reach a nuclear agreement with Iran to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons. Speaking on ABC News, Wright stated: "There may not be a nuclear agreement." He suggested the US might instead pursue military action to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities, or that an agreement could come under a future Iranian administration. Wright made the comments as negotiations between the two countries remain stalled and military exchanges continue.

Wright outlined two potential paths forward in separate television interviews on Sunday. On ABC This Week, he said it "may be simply destroying their capabilities to do it", referring to Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Later, on CBS's Face the Nation, he described the US military's primary role in the Gulf region as stopping Iranian energy exports, stating: "We are strangling their economy to try to bring either a change in policy from the existing regime or a new regime." Wright also declined to guarantee the safety of merchant vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz without US Navy escort. August recorded the deadliest month for merchant vessels in that waterway since March, according to reporting by the New York Times.

Wright told CNN's State of the Union on Sunday that the US remained "always open for a deal" and was not closing diplomatic channels. However, his public downplaying of nuclear agreement prospects marks a significant shift from stated US objectives at the start of military operations in the region. Iran has maintained it is developing only a civilian nuclear power programme and has no plans to build nuclear weapons.