Using military force to deter Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons was not out of the question “if that were the last resort,” US President Joe Biden said on Israeli television on Wednesday.
The president, however, declined to say if he had any communication with Israeli leaders regarding possible military responses.
In an interview with N12, Biden said he was also committed to keeping Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on the US Foreign Terrorist Organization list even if that scuttled the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday in a regional tour which will also see him attend a GCC summit in Saudi Arabia.
When asked why his administration was so determined to resurrect the deal, which most US allies in the region oppose, Biden said: “The only thing worse than the Iran that exists now is an Iran with nuclear weapons.”
Blaming his predecessor Donald Trump for canceling the deal, Biden said Iran was now more dangerous as a result.
“They are closer to a nuclear weapon now than they were before,” Biden said.
In 2018 Trump withdrew the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — signed in 2015 by Iran and the P5+1 group of countries China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany — because of Iran’s dangerous behavior in the Middle East. Most US allies in the region welcomed the move by the previous president.
The deal had offered Iran sanctions relief if Tehran permitted inspections on nuclear activities.