Biden says US will respond to Iran's actions, including drone strikes

ROME (Reuters) – President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the United States will "respond" to actions Iran has taken against Washington's interests, including drone strikes.

Leaders of the United States, Britain, France and Germany, hoping to persuade Tehran to stop enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels, said on Saturday they wanted a negotiated solution.

"But we do not yet know whether Iran is willing to come back to engage in a meaningful way," Blinken said on Sunday. "But if it isn't, if it won't, then we are looking together at all of the options necessary to deal with this problem."

Iran's foreign minister said separately on Sunday that if the United States was serious about rejoining Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Biden could just issue an "executive order," the state-owned Iran newspaper reported.

"It is enough for Biden to issue an executive order tomorrow and they (US) announce they are rejoining the pact from the point where his predecessor left the deal," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said. "If there is a serious will in Washington to return to the deal, there is no need for all these negotiations at all."

Talks between Iran and world powers aimed at salvaging the deal, which started in April, are slated to resume at the end of November.