Meeting shows dividing line on Iran
Biden, Lapid differ on best path to halt nuclear program
JERUSALEM — President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side Thursday and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power.
They parted ways, though, on how to get there.
Biden, in a joint news conference after a one-onone meeting with the Israeli leader, said he still wants to give diplomacy a chance. Moments earlier, Lapid insisted that words alone won’t thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
While Biden suggested his patience with Iran was running low, he held out hope that Iran can be persuaded to rejoin a dormant deal intended to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.
“I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome,” Biden said on the second day of a four-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia during his first trip to the Middle East as president.
Biden’s emphasis on a diplomatic solution contrasted with Lapid, who said Iran must face a real threat of force before it will agree to give up on its nuclear ambitions.
“Words will not stop them, Mr. President. Diplomacy will not stop them,” Lapid said. “The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program the free world will use force.”
Lapid suggested that he and Biden were in agreement, despite his tougher rhetoric toward Iran.
“I don’t think there’s a light between us,” he said. “We cannot allow Iran to become nuclear.”
Biden, too, said, “We will not, let me say it again, we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi lashed out at the U.S. and “its regional allies” for stoking instability in the region, state-run IRNA news agency reported.
“Any mistake by the Americans and their allies in the region and the world will be met with a harsh and regrettable response,” Raisi said.
Biden warned that his patience is wearing thin for Iran to rejoin the nuclear deal, a day after saying he’d be willing to use force against Tehran as a last resort.
The president said the U.S. had laid out for the Iranian leadership a path to return to the nuclear deal and was still waiting for a response.
“When that will come, I’m not certain,” Biden said. “But we’re not going to wait forever.”
Resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal brokered by President Barack Obama’s administration and abandoned by President Donald Trump in 2018 was a key priority for Biden as he entered office. But administration officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of getting Tehran back into compliance.
Israeli officials have sought to use Biden’s visit to underscore that Iran’s nuclear program has progressed too far and encourage the Biden administration to scuttle efforts to revive the deal.
Israel opposed the original nuclear deal because its limitations on Iran’s nuclear enrichment would expire and the agreement didn’t address Iran’s ballistic missile program or military activities in the region.
Instead of the U.S. reentering the deal, Israel would prefer strict sanctions in hopes of leading to a more sweeping accord.
In the joint statement issued by Biden and Lapid, the United States said it is ready to use “all elements of its national power” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.
Iran announced last week that it has enriched uranium to 60% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade quality.
The joint declaration could hold important symbolic importance for Biden’s upcoming meeting with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia as he seeks to strengthen a regionwide alliance against Iran.
The U.S. president, who is set to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Friday, said he also stressed to Lapid the importance of Israel becoming “totally integrated” in the region.
Israel during the Trump administration signed on to the Abraham Accords, declarations of diplomatic and economic normalization signed by Israel, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates that were signature foreign policy achievement for the Republican president. For Israel to come to such an agreement with the Saudis, an economic and Islamic epicenter in the Mideast, would be even more significant.
The president will visit Saudi Arabia after calling the kingdom a “pariah” nation as a presidential candidate and releasing a U.S. intelligence finding last year that showed the kingdom’s de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, likely approved the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S.-based writer.
Biden declined to commit to mentioning Khashoggi’s murder when he meets with the crown prince.
“I always bring up human rights,” Biden said at the news conference. “But my position on Khashoggi has been so clear. If anyone doesn’t understand it, in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they haven’t been around for a while.”