President Joe Biden will tell Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the White House on Thursday that Washington shares Israel’s concern that Iran has intensified its nuclear program but remains committed to diplomacy with Tehran.
Briefing reporters about their first face-to-face conversation, a senior US official said: “Since the previous administration abandoned the Iran nuclear deal, Iran’s nuclear program has been dramatically out of the box, And it’s getting faster week by week.”
The official added that Iran has more advanced centrifuges and uranium stockpiles as well as technology so that the nuclear “breakout” – the ability to make bombs – “has only lasted a few months now,” and added that the two leaders discussed Will do “what to do” about it.
The official said the administration was concerned by Iran’s nuclear activities, but indicated that Biden was certain to deny any requests from Bennett to halt efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
“Of course, we are committed to a diplomatic path where a new radical president takes power,” the official said amid stalled talks with Iran. “We think this is the best way to put a ceiling on the program and to take back the gains Iran has made in the nuclear sector in recent years.”
“If that doesn’t work, there are other avenues to proceed,” the official elaborated.
Despite the differences, US and Israeli officials alike have expressed hope that the White House meeting will set a positive tone between Biden, who took office in January, and Bennett, a far-right politician who took over as Benjamin Netanyahu in June. He had ended his 12-year term as Prime Minister. .
It will stand in stark contrast to years of tension between Netanyahu, who was close to Republican President Donald Trump, and Biden as vice president in the final Democratic administration led by Barack Obama.
The Biden administration places a lot of responsibility for its nuclear advances on tensions with Iran as well as on Trump’s decision to join the nuclear deal negotiated under Obama.
Bennett’s visit gives Washington an opportunity to display business as usual with its closest Middle East ally, while it grapples with the chaotic situation in Afghanistan, which is Biden’s biggest foreign policy crisis since taking office.
Iran will be at the top of the agenda with Bennett – who arrived in Washington on Tuesday – expected to emphasize a stern US approach to Israel’s regional arch-enemy.
In a report seen last week by Reuters, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has increased uranium enrichment to nearly weapons-grade. Iran has consistently denied asking for an atomic bomb.
Normalization Deals on the Palestinians and the Agenda
Bennett has been less openly belligerent, but as Netanyahu pledged not to allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons, which Israel considers an existential threat.
Israel is reported to have about 200 nuclear warheads, but it neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons under a strategy of “nuclear obscurity”, triggering an arms race to avoid public provocation. Can do.
Biden and Bennett will also discuss the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The US president has again made the two-state solution a central part of Washington’s policy, but Bennett, a right-wing leader who leads an ideologically diverse coalition, opposes the Palestinian state.
The Biden administration has little chance of resuming in the near future the peace talks that collapsed in 2014, the official said, “but there are steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of further sparks of conflict.” can.”
The Biden administration has already emphasized that it opposes further expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied lands.
The official said Biden will also discuss behind-the-scenes efforts with Bennett to help more Arab countries normalize ties with Israel. It will follow in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which reached agreements with Israel mediated by the Trump administration.
“There is a lot of work going on to expand those arrangements to other countries,” the official said.