Published on : 14/07/2022 – 12:11
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The United States is “not going to wait forever” for Iran to reach a nuclear deal, President Joe Biden said Thursday at a joint press conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid hold hands on the Iranian nuclear issue on the second day of the US President’s tour of the Middle East.
“The United States is not going to wait forever” for Iran, Joe Biden told a joint press conference.
The two leaders signed a joint declaration shortly before Thursday, under which the United States says it is ready to use “all elements of its national power” in order to prevent Iran from acquiring the weapon. atomic. The Americans do not use, until now, the expression “Declaration of Jerusalem” to evoke this text. But a senior White House official, who did not wish to be named, called the document “significant”.
The attitude to adopt vis-à-vis Tehran is a source of hesitation between the United States, which would like to try the diplomatic route by resuscitating a 2015 agreement aimed at guaranteeing the civilian character of the Iranian nuclear program, and Israel, a follower hard line.
“A gigantic mistake”
Considered by experts as the only nuclear power in the Middle East, Israel accuses Iran, its sworn enemy, of seeking to acquire the atomic bomb, which this country categorically denies.
In 2018, under the Trump administration, the United States withdrew from the 2015 agreement and reinstated sanctions against Iran, pushing the latter to renege on some of its commitments dictated by this pact.
“It was a gigantic mistake by the last president to pull out of the deal because they (the Iranians) are closer to atomic weapons today than they were before,” Joe Biden said in a statement. interview with the Israeli channel 12 aired Wednesday evening.
Asked if he was ready to use force to ensure that Iran does not obtain atomic weapons, Joe Biden replied: “Yes, if it is a last resort”.
Israel fears, among other things, that a lifting of sanctions would replenish Iran’s coffers, which would allow it to increase its support for its regional allies such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, pet peeves of the Jewish state.
In detail, Joe Biden is due to meet at midday with Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
American influence
He will also participate in a meeting of a format called “I2U2”, with the leaders of Israel, India, an ally of Israel, and the United Arab Emirates, a country which normalized relations in 2020 with Israel.
At this meeting will be presented, according to the senior American official, a “two billion dollar” project for agricultural development in India.
Joe Biden will also see President Isaac Herzog, who is to decorate him with a “medal of honor”, and he will go to encourage American athletes participating in the Maccabiah Games, Jewish sports meetings organized every four years in Israel.
Finally, as is customary for an American president, especially since Israel is campaigning for the early legislative elections on November 1, Biden will meet the political opposition, in this case former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Joe Biden’s visit – his tenth in total, but his first as president – is for Washington to recall his influence in a region that has so far not been the priority of the Democratic administration, especially obsessed with China and Russia.
“If the two parties are ready to dialogue, we will be there”
Where almost all American administrations have directed many diplomatic efforts towards the Middle East, with great initiatives for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, that of Joe Biden has so far remained in the background.
The president plans, according to a senior American official, to make Friday, during a meeting with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, in the occupied West Bank, a “significant” aid for hospitals in East Jerusalem, and a project for the development of a 4G network in both the West Bank and Gaza.
This economic support “does not replace the need, ultimately, for a political horizon”, he assured. “We are not going to present a comprehensive peace plan” because that “would create expectations which would probably be disappointed” but “if the two parties are ready to dialogue, we will be there”. After Israel, Joe Biden is due to travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday.
With AFP
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