Biden: Force May Be Used to Stop Iran From Going Nuclear; Hezbollah Threatens War With Israel Over Maritime Border Dispute With Lebanon

US President Joe Biden said he would use force as a last resort to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon as he began a trip to the Middle East.

Speaking in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 TV, Biden said he would keep Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the US Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) list even if that killed off the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Asked if his past statements that he would prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon meant he would use force against Iran, Biden replied: “If that was the last resort, yes.”

Tehran struck a deal with six major powers under which it limited its nuclear program to make it harder to obtain a weapon in return for relief from economic sanctions.

Meanwhile, Biden and Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a joint declaration on Thursday that includes Washington’s backing for extending the massive defense package provided to the Jewish state.

From all of us here in Israel, Welcome @POTUS 🇮🇱🇺🇸!#POTUSIsrael2022 pic.twitter.com/TeXdLcIhpO

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) July 14, 2022

The $38 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in 2016 under the Obama administration when Biden was vice president.

In addition to backing Israel’s security, the joint declaration will also see the sides commit to never allowing Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Also on Thursday, Lapid and Biden opened the Virtual Meeting of the I2U2, together with the President of the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. The leaders agreed to work together on food security and clean energy, tech, and trade, among other issues.

They reaffirmed their support for the Abraham Accords and other peace and normalization arrangements with Israel.

America’s commander-in-chief was met with a warm welcome when he arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Wednesday and spoke of his long relationship with the Jewish state.

Speakers on the tarmac included Prime Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog, both of whom recalled US President Joe Biden’s first visit to Israel in 1973, just days before the start of the Yom Kippur War.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid, US President Joe Biden, and President Herzog

“It is a very personal visit because your relationship with Israel has always been very personal,” said Lapid, adding: “You once defined yourself as a Zionist. You said that you don’t have to be a Jew in order to be a Zionist, and you were right. And in your case, a great Zionist, and one of the best friends Israel has ever known.”

Biden followed Lapid’s remarks, noting: “I realize that I had the great honor of living part of the great history of this nation. And I did say, I say again, you need not be a Jew to be a Zionist.”

The President of the United States added that the “…connection between the Israeli people and the American people is bone deep; it’s bone deep. Generation after generation, that connection grows. We invest in each other. We dream together. We’re part of what has always been the objective we both had.”

Also on Wednesday, Biden took part in a wreath-laying ceremony and spoke with two Holocaust survivors during his visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, in Jerusalem.

President Biden took part in a wreath-laying ceremony and spoke with two Holocaust survivors on Wednesday during his visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, in Jerusalem. https://t.co/WgVPHUVviw pic.twitter.com/vQ3hnZkLgk

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 14, 2022

Find out the when and where of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel.

The head of the Hezbollah terrorist group warned on Wednesday that “no one” would be allowed to operate in maritime oil and gas fields if Lebanon was barred from its “rights” in extracting from areas off of its own coast.

“If you don’t give us the rights that our state is asking for … then we could flip the table on everyone,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address.

Lebanon is locked in US-mediated negotiations with Israel to delineate a shared maritime border that would help determine which oil and gas resources belong to which country.

Israel has already begun work at the Karish oil field through a vessel operated by London-based Energean.

On July 2, Hezbollah launched three unarmed drones towards the vessel, which Israel intercepted.

Nasrallah threatened “Karish and beyond Karish,” echoing a statement he made a few weeks before a month-long conflict with Israel in 2006 when he threatened “Haifa and beyond Haifa.”

A recent edition of the Saudi magazine Al Majalla, published from London, ran a cover story unusual in the Arab world – a positive feature about Arab Israelis who serve in the IDF.

The article describes how a battalion of combat troops assembles early one morning in the Negev Desert.

“And yet, these are not regular soldiers, but Arabs who chose to volunteer to fight and even sacrifice their lives to defend the State of Israel,” the piece tells readers, adding: “These young people, who include women, are proud to be part of the Israeli army. One of the young men, A-Raqib Imad, says proudly, ‘It’s a great honor to hold a weapon in one hand and the Quran in the other to defend my homeland, Israel.'”

The article also says that mainstream media outlets err in their portrayals of the Israeli military out of the mistaken perception that it only represents Jewish Israelis, and notes that the IDF represents all Israelis – Jews, Muslim, and Druze.