JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday urged the United States to show Iran that it would take military action if Tehran continues its nuclear enrichment program, underscoring Israel’s opposition to the efforts backed by the United States to persuade Iran through diplomacy alone.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Lapid, who is acting prime minister until the November election, also discussed the issue at a meeting as part of the president’s four-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“Words won’t stop them, Mr. President,” Lapid said of Iran’s leaders at a press conference afterwards. “Diplomacy will not stop them. The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if it continues to develop its nuclear program, the free world will use force.
Mr. Lapid added: “The Iranian regime must know that if it continues to deceive the world, it will pay a heavy price.
Mr Biden had earlier sought to calm Israeli fears of a potential new Iranian nuclear deal, promising not to give in to a key demand from Tehran and assuring Israelis he would use force if necessary to prevent Iran to develop a bomb.
In an interview recorded at the White House on Tuesday and broadcast on Israeli television Wednesday evening shortly after his arrival, Mr. Biden again rejected Iran’s demand that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps be removed from the list of Washington’s foreign terrorist organizations as part of any agreement. . When asked if he would keep this position even if it meant no agreement, Mr Biden replied: “Yes”.
Mr Lapid welcomed the stance on Thursday, according to the government statement. “The prime minister thanked the president for his decision not to remove the Revolutionary Guards from the list of terrorist organizations,” he added.
Israel vehemently opposed the 2015 nuclear deal. And after President Donald J. Trump’s withdrawal from the deal three years later sparked another surge in Iran’s nuclear program, Israel stepped up its campaign to sabotage, blowing up Iranian facilities.
Talks to renew the deal have stalled for months.
Mr Biden argued that Israel became more vulnerable when Mr Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, struck under the Obama administration. It would be safer, Mr Biden said, with a renewed deal.
“The only thing worse than Iran that exists now is an Iran with nuclear weapons, and if we can get back to the deal, we can hold them tight,” he told Channel 12’s Yonit Levi. in the television interview. “I think it was a huge mistake for the last president to pull out of the deal. They’re closer to a nuclear weapon now than they were before.
One of the goals of Mr. Biden’s trip is to ensure that the United States is on the same page with Israel, Saudi Arabia and other enemies of Iran if the talks on the nuclear fail. But Mr. Biden remained hopeful they could still pull it off.
“I still think it makes sense,” he said. “We put it on the table, we made the deal, we offered it, and now it’s up to Iran to decide.”
And when asked if he would use force against Iran if necessary to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon, he replied: “If it was the last resort, yes.