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US military attack would be ‘last resort’ to stop Iran, Biden says

“The only thing worse than the Iran that exists now is the Iran with nuclear weapons,” Biden tells Israeli journalist.

By World Israel News Staff

President Joe Biden said during an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News that the U.S. would potentially take military action in order to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, but only as a “last resort” after all diplomatic efforts have failed.

Journalist Yonit Levi referenced past statements by Biden that he would “do anything” to ensure that Iran does not successfully create a nuclear weapon. She then asked if “anything” includes “using [military] force.”

“If that was the last resort, yes,” Biden said, though he did not address Levi’s question as to whether the U.S. would partner with Israel in such an operation.

“But Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon,” he added. “The only thing worse than the Iran that exists now is the Iran with nuclear weapons.”

Despite previous reports to the contrary, Biden stressed that the U.S. is not willing to remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from its Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, a concession that Tehran had requested in order to move the talks forward.

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Biden slammed his predecessor Donald Trump for unilaterally withdrawing from the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, calling the move “a gigantic mistake.”

He said he believes that Iran “is closer to a nuclear weapon now than they were before,” and argued that the U.S. reentering an agreement would allow Washington to “hold them tight.”

Talks aimed at reviving the nuclear deal have been stalled for weeks, while Iran ramps up uranium enrichment and removes monitoring cameras from its nuclear development sites.

Currently in Israel for a brief trip to the region, Biden is expected to visit Saudi Arabia in the coming days.

Saudi Arabia and Israel have clandestinely partnered in the past to mitigate the Iranian nuclear threat, and some Biden administration officials have hinted that formal normalization between the two countries may be on the horizon.