Biden warns Iran that US won’t wait ‘forever’ on nuclear deal

Bloomberg

President Joe Biden said the US won’t wait “forever” for Iran to agree to new curbs on its nuclear program, while Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned that his country is prepared to defend itself should Tehran get closer to developing a weapon.
“We’ve laid out for the leadership of Iran what we’re willing to accept,” Biden told reporters Thursday at a news conference with Lapid in Jerusalem. He said the US was awaiting a response from Tehran, but that “we’re not going to wait forever.”
Biden’s comments during his first trip to the Middle East as president reflect the shift in US policy toward Iran. Former President Donald Trump scrapped the nuclear agreement reached by President Barack Obama and other world leaders in 2015, contending that it didn’t sufficiently curb the Islamic Republic’s military activities. Biden’s administration has sought to revive the agreement.
Iran has “an opportunity to accept this agreement that’s been laid down,” Biden said.
“We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” he added. Lapid cautioned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows that “in order to protect freedom, sometimes force must be used.”
“Nobody wants that, but neither can we shy away from it,” he said. “On the side of terror stand people who will not hesitate to exploit any weakness, people who do not play by the rules.”
Iran, he said, “will pay a heavy price” if it develops a nuclear weapon, but he expressed optimism that Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia beginning Friday would offer an alternative.
“We are creating an alliance of moderate countries that believe in peace, that believe that our children deserve the opportunity to live a better life,” Lapid said. In an interview with Israeli television Wednesday, Biden said he wouldn’t rule out US military action to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon “if that was the last resort.” The two leaders signed a joint declaration expressing the Biden administration’s support for extending an agreement between the US and Israel — which currently stretches through the 2028 fiscal year —that includes billions in defense aid for Israel. Biden on Wednesday was briefed on Israel’s Iron Dome and new Iron Beam air defense systems.
The defense cooperation agreement emerged after months of sometimes fraught negotiations between Obama and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposed the Obama administration’s efforts to broker a nuclear deal with Iran and proceeded with the construction of Israeli settlements despite US concerns they would exacerbate tensions with the Palestinians.
The document not only reaffirms the US commitment to Israel’s security and its military edge over regional adversaries, but also its commitment “never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president, is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu — now the opposition leader—later Thursday.