Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken on Tuesday vowed the United States will restore a nuclear accord with Iran if it returns to compliance, adding that President-elect Joe Biden’s administration will seek a “longer and stronger” deal. 

Speaking at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the eve of Biden’s inauguration, Blinken said, Biden “believes that if Iran comes back into compliance, we would too”, AFP reported. 

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“But we would use that as a platform with our allies and partners, who would once again be on the same side with us, to seek a longer and stronger agreement,” he added. 

Blinken, a long-time aide to Biden, also backed President Donald Trump’s tough stance on China, although, he didn’t always agree with his tactics. 

“I also believe that President Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China. I disagree very much with the way he went about it in a number of areas, but the basic principle was the right one,” Blinken said. 

Blinken said that under Biden, the US will seek to remain the preeminent global power but will forge new alliances on common challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. 

“America at its best still has a greater ability than any country on earth to mobilise others for the greater good.”

“We can outcompete China, and remind the world that a government of the people, by the people, can deliver for its people,” Blinken said, quoting Abraham Lincoln’s paean to democracy. 

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The stepson of a Holocaust survivor who found refuge in the US, Blinken, 58, is known for his passion on humanitarian causes.

He is expected to win the Senate confirmation although Republicans have vowed to press him hard on his consulting work since leaving Barack Obama’s administration four years ago.

In a sharp shift in tone from Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who spoke of “swagger”, “American exceptionalism” and global conflict with China, Blinken said he would show “humility.”

“Not one of the big challenges we face can be met by one country acting alone, even one as powerful as the US,” Blinken said.

“We can revitalise our core alliances, force multipliers of our influence around the world. Together, we are far better positioned to counter threats posed by Russia, Iran, and North Korea and to stand up for democracy and human rights.”

Biden has promised to move swiftly after his inauguration on Wednesday to reverse some of Trump’s most divisive policies.

Biden has pledged to rejoin the Paris climate accord, reverse the US exit from the World Health Organization and end immigration agents’ draconian separations of Latin American children from their families.

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On Tuesday, Blinken confirmed that the Biden administration will continue to recognise Jerusalem as the national capital of Israel and will not move the US embassy from there. The decision, which was taken by the outgoing Trump administration, will stay in place, reported AFP. 

When questioned by Senator Ted Cruz, Blinken said “Yes and yes” to both points without any hesitation. 

With the world’s eyes on the Capitol steps, new presidents have seized on inaugural addresses to make soaring statements of US international purpose, from John F. Kennedy’s Cold War warning of a “long twilight struggle” to Obama’s offer to adversaries “to extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

Biden’s inauguration will take place in a far darker atmosphere with virtually no crowd, due both to the pandemic that has claimed over two million lives worldwide and ultra-tight security after the pro-Trump mob’s January 6 attack on the very building where Biden will take the oath.