President Joe Biden on Wednesday opened his first visit to West Asia since taking office by offering anxious Israeli leaders strong reassurances of his determination to stop Iran’s growing nuclear program, saying he would be willing to use force “as a last resort.”
The President’s comments came in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 taped before he left Washington and broadcast on Wednesday, hours after the country’s political leaders welcomed him with a red-carpet arrival ceremony at the Tel Aviv airport.
“The only thing worse than the Iran that exists now is an Iran with nuclear weapons,” Mr. Biden said. Asked about using military force against Iran, Mr. Biden said, “If that was the last resort, yes.”
U.S. ally Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy, citing its nuclear program, its calls for Israel’s destruction and its support for hostile militant groups across the region.
U.S. and Israel are expected on Thursday to unveil a joint declaration cementing their close military ties and strengthening past calls to take military action to halt Iran’s nuclear program. A senior Israeli official said before Mr. Biden arrived that both countries would commit to “using all elements of their national power against the Iranian nuclear threat.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending the formal release of the statement.
Israeli leaders made clear as they marked Mr. Biden’s arrival that Iran’s nuclear program was the top item on their agenda.
“We will discuss the need to renew a strong global coalition that will stop the Iranian nuclear program,” said Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, as he greeted the Democratic President at the airport ceremony in Tel Aviv.
Mr. Biden said he would not remove Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the U.S. list of terrorist organisations, even if that kept Iran from rejoining the Iran nuclear deal.
Sanctions on the IRGC, which has carried out regional attacks, have been a sticking point in negotiations to bring Iran back into compliance with the agreement meant to keep it from having a nuclear weapon. Iran announced last week that it has enriched uranium to 60% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade quality.
Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, though United Nations experts and Western intelligence agencies say Iran had an organised military nuclear program through 2003.
Mr. Biden’s visit to Israel follows the collapse a coalition-led government headed by Naftali Bennett. The President was greeted by Mr. Lapid, the caretaker prime minister who is hoping to hang on to power when Israelis hold their fifth election in three years this fall.
Mr. Biden made reviving the Iran nuclear deal, brokered by Barack Obama in 2015 and abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018, a key priority as he entered office.
But indirect talks for the U.S. to reenter the deal have stalled as Iran has made rapid gains in developing its nuclear program. That has left the Biden administration increasingly pessimistic about resurrecting the deal, which placed significant restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Two-state solution to conflict
Mr. Biden is set to meet Thursday with Israeli officials, including Mr. Lapid, Mr. Herzog and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He will meet on Friday with Palestinian officials.
Mr. Biden said he will emphasize in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders his continued support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but acknowledged that outcome likely wouldn't be feasible “in the near term.”
He maintained that a two-state solution is the best way to ensure a “future of equal measure of freedom, prosperity and democracy for Israelis and Palestinians alike.” His national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Mr. Biden would not offer any proposals during the trip aimed at restarting talks.
The White House has also been frustrated with repeated Iran-sponsored attacks on U.S. troops based in Iraq, though the administration says the frequency of such attacks has dropped precipitously over the last two years. Tehran also backs the rebel Houthis in a bloody war with the Saudis in Yemen. A U.N.-brokered cease-fire has been in place for more than four months, a fragile peace in a war that began in 2015.
Mr. Sullivan said this week that the administration believes Russia is turning to Iran to provide it with hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles, including weapons-capable drones, for use in its ongoing war in Ukraine. Sullivan said on Wednesday that Iranians showing a willingness to assist Russia is something that should be of great concern to the Israelis, Saudis and other Gulf allies that Mr. Biden will be meeting with this week.
“We think that this is of interest, to put it mildly, to countries we will be visiting on this trip,” Mr. Sullivan said.
