JERUSALEM, July 14 (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid will sign a joint pledge to deny nuclear weapons to Iran on Thursday, closing ranks after long allies dispute over diplomacy global with Tehran.
Biden, who is visiting Jerusalem, told Israeli television on Wednesday that he was open to using “last resort” force against Iran, an apparent move to accommodate Israel’s calls on world powers to present a ” credible military threat “.
The United States and Israel have made separate veiled statements about a possible pre-emptive war with Iran – which denies seeking nuclear weapons – for years. The formal articulation of rhetoric could enhance the sense of deterrence and resolution.
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Demonstrating the Israeli-US commitment may also offer a boost to Biden as it continues into Saudi Arabia on Friday. Riyadh has its own concerns about Iran, and Biden hopes to turn it into a Saudi-Israeli rapprochement under US auspices.
In meeting with Lapid before the signing ceremony, Biden told reporters that they had discussed “how important it was, from my perspective, that Israel be fully integrated into the region.”
Lapid considered Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia to be “extremely important to Israel.”
There was no immediate comment on the planned Jerusalem declaration from Tehran.
US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid attend a bilateral meeting in Jerusalem on July 14, 2022. REUTERS / Evelyn Hockstein
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A senior US official said the text would contain “a promise and a commitment to never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon and that we are willing to use all elements of our national power to ensure this result.”
In 2015, Iran signed an international agreement limiting Iranian nuclear projects with bomb-making potential. In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump abandoned the pact, deeming it insufficient, a welcome withdrawal by Israel.
Since then, Iran has intensified some nuclear activities, putting a watch on the world powers ’bid to return to an agreement on the Vienna talks. Now Israel says it would support a new agreement with tougher provisions. Iran has resisted further restrictions.
“The only thing worse than the Iran that exists now is an Iran with nuclear weapons and if we can get back to the deal, we can hold them strong,” Biden said in the Israeli television interview.
Some Israeli and Arab Gulf officials believe that easing the sanctions in the deal would provide Iran with much more money to support substitute forces in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. They are also skeptical about whether the Biden administration will do much to counter Iran’s regional activities.
The U.S. official, asked if Thursday’s statement is about gaining time with Israel while Washington continues negotiations with Iran, said: “If Iran wants to sign the agreement that has been negotiated in Vienna, we have made it very clear that we are willing to do that, and at the same time, if they are not, we will continue to increase our sanctions pressure, we will continue to increase Iran’s diplomatic isolation. “
A senior Israeli official described the threat of military action as a means to prevent war.
“(It is a guarantee that diplomatic, economic and legal efforts against Iran will be effective,” Defense Ministry Director General Amir Eshel told Israel’s Kan radio. “Iran has shown everyone that when he is pressed hard he knows how to stop and change his way “.
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Written by Dan Williams; Additional report by Jarrett Renshaw and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Howard Goller and Nick Macfie
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