US and Israel sign joint pledge to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons

Agencies | Colombo                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a joint pledge yesterday to deny Iran nuclear arms. The undertaking, part of a “Jerusalem Declaration”, came a day after Biden told a local TV station that he was open to “last resort” use of force against Iran - an apparent move toward accommodating Israel’s calls for a “credible military threat” by world powers.

“We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” Biden told a news conference following the signing of the declaration. “The United States stresses that integral to this pledge is the commitment never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that it is prepared to use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome,” the statement added. Lapid cast this posture as a way of averting open conflict.

“The only way to stop a nuclear Iran is if Iran knows the free world will use force,” he said after the signing ceremony. Speaking alongside him, Biden described preventing a nuclear Iran as “a vital security interest for Israel and the United States and, I would add, for the rest of the world as well”.

Biden has pushed for a return to talks but said it was up to Iran to respond.“We are not going to wait forever,” he said. Biden told reporters he and Lapid had discussed how important it was “for Israel to be totally integrated into the region”.

Lapid, in turn, deemed Biden’s Saudi trip “extremely important to Israel”. The Jerusalem Declaration further committed the United States and Israel to cooperating on defence projects such as laser interceptors, as well as on civilian technologies.

The United States also reaffirmed Washington’s interest in reviving talks on an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution. “(It) is a guarantee that the diplomatic, economic and legal efforts against Iran will be effective,” Defence Ministry director-general Amir Eshel told Israel’s Kan radio. “Iran has shown everyone that when it is pressed hard it knows how to stop and change its ways.