Speaking With Israeli Prime Minister, President Biden Stressed US Will Not Allow Iran To Have Nuclear Weapons

JAKARTA - President Joe Biden stressed to Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid that the United States would never allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, the White House said.

This was revealed, as Iran was seeking stronger guarantees from Washington, amid efforts to revive the 2015 Nuclear Deal with world powers.

Israel opposes the recovery of the 2015 Nuclear Deal, which imposed restrictions on Iran's nuclear weapons program in exchange for lifting US, European Union and UN sanctions against Tehran.

To please Israel, former president Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions. This prompted Tehran to violate the nuclear pact.

President Biden had previously vowed to revive the treaty, while ensuring the security of Israel, Iran's regional arch-foe.

"The president underlined the US commitment to never allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons" in a call in which President Biden and PM Lapid also discussed "threats posed by Iran," the White House said in a statement.

President Biden also stressed the importance of completing maritime boundaries negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, the statement added.

In reading the phone itself, Lapid's office said they were "talking at length about the nuclear agreement negotiations, and their shared commitment to halt Iran's progress towards nuclear weapons."

The 2015 Nuclear Deal comes close to recovery in March. However, indirect talks between Tehran and Washington were later stalled over several issues, including Tehran's insistence that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) close its investigation of traces of uranium found in three unannounced locations before the nuclear pact was revived.

Earlier, President Biden and PM Lapid signed a joint pledge to reject Iran's nuclear weapons, a long-brokered unity show between allies due to diplomacy and Tehran.

But PM Lapid said last week, if the 2015 deal was revived, Israel would not be bound by him.