WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden tried to ensure Israel that he would not tolerate Iran’s nuclear when he met the Israeli president who came out, Rivlin, on Monday in the midst of big shocks in Israeli politics and grew anxiety in the US administration effort to re-enter Iran’s agreement nuclear.
Biden noted that he had ordered air strikes the day before, the US military targeting facility said used by militia groups supported by Iran near the border between Iraq and Syria.
The rhetoric seemed to underline that he would remain tough on Iranian activities in slander even when he was looking for a diplomatic trajectory to the Tehran Stem Nuclear Program.
“What I can say to you is that Iran will never get nuclear weapons in my watch,” Biden said at the White House meeting.
The meeting with Rivlin, who made the last foreign trip from his presidency, took place only a few weeks after Naftali Bennett became Israel’s new prime minister, replacing Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden administration, meanwhile, has intensified efforts to revive the Iranian agreement in 2015 with the world’s power to limit Tehran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons.
Former President Donald Trump, with Netanyahu’s support, canceled the agreement in 2018.
Biden said that he hoped to meet with the new prime minister in the White House “soon.” Rivlin will leave the office on July 7 after a seven years.
Ishak Herzog, a former member of parliament who recently led a non-profit organization that worked with the government to promote immigration to Israel, would take over as President of Israel.
Rivlin is also scheduled to meet with Democratic home speaker Nancy Pelosi later Monday.
Biden said both would talk about Iran and after the Gaza War.
The President also underlined its support to continue normalizing the relationship between Israel and countries in the Arab and Muslim countries and plans to reaffirm the administrative appointment to supply the Israeli iron dome missile defense system, which runs out during the 11-day war with Hamas in Gaza.
The latest conflict claims at least 254 Palestinian life and killed 13 people in Israel.
Biden has low expectations, at least for now, reviving the peace talks of Israel-Palestine, according to an official who is familiar with the Biden Administrative Conference.
The official, who spoke of the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, said Biden administration officials began to square in building contacts with Palestinian authorities in the West Bank, a relationship that was eroded during the Trump administration.
The meeting with Rivlin came one day after US Secretary Antony Blinken met in Rome with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, a centris along with Bennett and six other political allies to build a fragile coalition government that put Netanyahu in the opposition.
Aviv Kochavi, the Chief of Staff of Israeli defense forces, met last week with the Biden National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, and other senior national security officials.
Kochavi reiterated Israel’s opposition to efforts by the Biden government to revive the 2015 agreement.
However, administrative officials have returned talks with Kochavi and others in the new Israeli government that it is better to provide shot diplomacy on Tehran’s termination because it gets a nuclear weapons system, even if It was not guaranteed, the official said.