US President Joe Biden pledged Wednesday that Iran will not go nuclear on his watch. The president made the statement during an interview at the White House with Israel’s Channel 12 anchor Yonit Levy in a conversation recorded just prior to his departure for a visit to the Jewish State.
The president explained his reasons for working to return to the nuclear deal with Iran, saying it is because “the only thing that is worse than the Iran that exists now is the Iran with nuclear weapons, and if we can return to the deal and hold them tight. . . I think it was a gigantic mistake for the last president to get out of the deal. They’re closer to a nuclear weapon now than they were before,” he said.
However, he vowed Iran will not acquire nuclear arms while he is president.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not the Quds Force is going to stop or going to continue to be engaged in activity; we can act against them and still have a deal where they curtail their nuclear program,” Biden added.
He also told Levy that he is committed to keeping Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on the foreign terror organizations’ list, even if that means it kills the revival of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Tehran.
Biden told Levy that he is determined to make sure Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons while he is president, and said that if all else fails, he is willing to use force to stop it from happening “as a last resort.”
The president also told Levy that despite his past differences with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, currently serving as Israel’s opposition leader, upcoming Israeli elections in November will not make a difference in how he relates to the Jewish State.
“We’re committed to the state, not an individual leader,” Biden said. “Whoever the leader is, I’ll work with,” he said.
He added that there is indeed a chance that he might once again face off with former President Donald Trump in the next presidential election.
