Energy Secretary says 'there may not be' a nuclear agreement with Iran

President Trump said last week he "could not care less" if Iran struck a deal.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that a nuclear agreement with Iran, long sought by President Donald Trump, may not come to fruition after months of war with the country.

"There may not be a nuclear agreement. It may be simply destroying their capabilities to do it. An agreement may await a next administration in Iran. We simply don't know that," Wright told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz when asked about signs of a possible nuclear deal.

Asked how the U.S. plans to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon without an agreement, Wright said that the U.S. had crippled the country's ability to produce one through its bombing campaign.

"We are degrading their capacity to develop nuclear weapons and ultimately to deliver them, if they develop them," he said. "It is [a] 47-year-long effort. This is not trivial, but the United States will get the job done, and we will work in cooperation with our allies in the region."

Last month, Trump similarly suggested that a deal he deems sufficient with Iran might not happen, in spite of the fact that securing a nuclear agreement with Iran was initially one of the administration's main objectives.

"They want to make a deal, but they're not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary," Trump told reporters in August.

"Look, we're in there for one reason -- Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. You understand that -- Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won't have a nuclear weapon. And right now, them building one after what we did previously with the B-2 bombers, it's going to be a long time," he added.

The president reiterated that sentiment last Tuesday, declaring on social media that he "could not care less" if Iran struck a deal with the U.S. -- even as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier the same day that the administration's goal was to "economically asphyxiate" Iran to force them to the table.

Wright's comments come as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran appeared to ramp up again, even as the president declared the war to be "small potatoes" on Friday. On Saturday, the U.S. struck three Iranian oil tankers after Iran targeted two U.S. Navy warships. Tehran then claimed to have launched retaliatory strikes on three U.S.-affiliated vessels and three oil tankers.

"Look, it's a challenge. Iran is doing everything they can to cling on to something," Wright said Sunday when pressed on the president's characterization of the conflict.

"They know their nuclear program is coming to an end, their navy's come to an end, their air force has come to an end. They're clinging on to power as the United States continues to escalate the volume of oil that transits through the Strait of Hormuz," he said.

Wright later added that the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports would "either change their regime or it'll change their regime's policies."

More highlights from the interview:

MARTHA RADDATZ: You said that Monday we broke a wartime record with 17 million barrels a day passing through. The average before the war was 20 million barrels a day. Have we sustained that this week? What was our seven-day average?

CHRIS WRIGHT: The seven-day average right now is a little over nine million barrels a day, which is the highest the seven-day average has ever been. So it continues to migrate up. And then there's also the bypass pipelines through Saudi Arabia, through the United Arab Emirates. And when you add those together, the flow through the -- out of that region is more like 13, 14 million barrels a day.

On when Americans can expect gas prices to decrease:

WRIGHT: Well, if you look at the futures prices, you wanted to buy today in bulk gasoline for two months out in November, it's about 35 cents cheaper than it is today. So the marketplace thinks gasoline prices are going to move meaningfully lower. So trust the market, certainly don't trust my predictions, but we're doing everything we can to grow the production of gasoline as we pass Labor Day tomorrow, you'll start to see demand decline as we move out of summer driving season.

WRIGHT: We have a lot of leverage over Venezuela. We control the sale of oil outside of their country. So right now they are forced to work in partnership with us, and they are working in partnership with us. It's drawing billions of dollars in investment, and it's transforming that region from a region of conflict to a region of commerce. I think the momentum going [in] that direction, whoever is ruling Venezuela, is quite strong. Very, very positive outlook for the hemisp -- for the Western Hemisphere.

Related Topics

Sponsored Content by Taboola