President Joe Biden indicated to interim Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid that a nuclear deal with Iran is off the agenda for the foreseeable future, the Times of Israel reported Wednesday.
Biden spoke with Lapid in late August about the faltering progress of the EU-mediated nuclear negotiations with Iran, promising that the U.S. would never permit Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, Reuters reported. Iran appears to have revived a stipulation to cancel an independent investigation into its alleged nuclear weapons program, potentially derailing efforts to strike an agreement that could curb Iran’s enrichment program in exchange for limited sanctions relief, according to the Times of Israel.
“Iran’s response did not put us in a position to close the deal,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said Tuesday, referring to the response Iran submitted to the U.S. counter-proposal on Sept. 2. “We’ve consistently said that gaps remain, and it’s clear from Iran’s response that these gaps still remain.”
In his conversation with Lapid, Biden made it clear that the U.S. “will not tie Israel’s hands” regarding possible action to defend itself from a nuclear Iran, U.S. ambassador to Israel Tom Nides told Axios Tuesday. The Prime Minister’s Office had reiterated Israel’s commitment to self defense that could include unilateral kinetic action against Iran.
A state department spokesperson declined to confirm to the Daily Caller News Foundation the Times of Israel’s report, saying “We do not provide detail on the President’s private conversations with foreign leaders.”
“We are in intensive and constant discussions with Israel on Iran,” the spokesperson added.
Israeli leaders stepped up the pressure on the U.S. in recent weeks to reject the nuclear deal, claiming it would catalyze Iran’s support for terrorism and exceeds the compromises the Biden administration had indicated it was willing to tolerate. (RELATED: ‘Can’t Be Trusted’: Bipartisan Reps Urge Biden To Reconsider Iran Nuclear Deal)
David Barnea, the head of Israel’s largest intelligence service, headed to the U.S. Monday for meetings with the top officials in the White House, CIA, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Pentagon and State Department to lobby U.S. leaders to block the deal, Jerusalem Post reported. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and National Security Council Chief Eyal Hulata also met with officials in Washington in late August.
If Iran continues to try [to get a nuclear weapon] it will discover Israel’s long arm and capabilities,” Lapid said Tuesday,
I call on @POTUS Biden & the US administration to refrain, even now at this last minute, from signing the agreement with Iran. This agreement will send approximately a quarter of a trillion dollars to the Iranian terror administration’s pocket and to its regional proxies, >>
— Naftali Bennett בנט (@naftalibennett) August 23, 2022
European officials now speculate that any final negotiations will not be held until after the U.S. midterm congressional elections in November, if further talks happen at all, the Jerusalem Post reported. Congress has a legal obligation to perform a 30-day review on any White House agreement to lift sanctions, but Biden will not likely want to avoid putting such a controversial issue on the agenda the month before elections.
The White House, the Israeli prime minister’s office and Iran’s permanent representative to the UN did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
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