Last night (Tuesday), hours before his landing in Israel, US President Joe Biden gave an interview to Channel 12 and addressed a number of issues related to Israel. The interview was published tonight. ‘Shabbat Square’ with the full quotes.
Biden addressed the reason why he is determined to return to the nuclear deal with Iran, while most Israelis oppose it. “The only thing worse than today’s Iran is Iran with nuclear weapons, and if we can go back to the agreement we will keep them short,” Biden said, adding: “I think the previous president made a huge mistake when he left the agreement, Iran is now closer to nuclear weapons than it used to be.
“It has nothing to do with whether Quds Force will continue to operate or not in the region. We can act against them and still reach an agreement that will curb the nuclear program. I still think it makes sense. We went to the negotiating table, drafted an agreement, proposed it and now it depends on Iran.
When asked by the interviewer, Yonit Levy, if he undertakes to keep the Revolutionary Guards on the list of terrorist organizations – even if it will eliminate the agreement – Biden answered yes. A similarly positive and unequivocal answer was given when asked if he would act forcefully against Iran, should the need arise.
During the interview, he referred to what was happening in the Saudi arena. “It (normalization) can take a long time. But deepening the relationship in the sense of mutual acceptance in the sense of working together on all sorts of things, it makes sense to me,” he said.
Regarding the other voices in the Democratic Party that call Israel an apartheid state and call for an end to security assistance, Biden said in a Channel 12 interview: “These are few voices. There is no reason to fear for the future of relations.
He also referred to the battles in Israel and possible relations with Netanyahu if he is elected. “We are committed to a state, not to a specific leader. I work with a democratic state that is in the process of electing a leader, whoever it is, that I will work with,” Biden said.
In the interview, he also referred to the war in Ukraine and the pressure on Putin. “Everything he (Putin) tried to do hit him back. We managed to maintain uniformity and stability in Europe together with NATO countries. As I said at the time – as long as we impose sanctions on Russia everyone will be harmed by them. But this is the price we must pay to prevent this man from succeeding. “From our side, it will last as long as it takes, it will take as long as it takes.”
On a future confrontation in 2015 with Trump in the presidential race he said: “I do not foresee this, I will not be disappointed. I have not even passed even half of my term. There is still a lot of room to decide what is going to happen. But I hope the Republican Party returns to normal. The ‘MAGA’ party. “