Biden, Lapid Sign Joint Declaration Pledging to 'Never Allow Iran to Acquire Nuclear Weapon'

Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday for two days of talks with Israeli government and military officials as part of his Middle Eastern mini tour - the first of this presidency. In an interview with Israeli media, Biden warned that the US would authorize the use of force against Iran "as a last resort" to prevent Tehran from building a nuke.

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid have signed a joint declaration on the state of the "strategic partnership" between the two nations, with the document including a formal commitment prohibiting the Islamic Republic of Iran from building a nuclear weapon.

"Consistent with the longstanding security relationship between the United States and Israel and the unshakable US commitment to Israel's security, and especially to the maintenance of its qualitative military edge, the United States reiterates its steadfast commitment to preserve and strengthen Israel's capability to deter its enemies and to defend itself by itself against any threat or combination of threats," the statement, published on the White House's website, indicated.

"The United States stresses that integral to this pledge is the commitment never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that it is prepared to use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome," the declaration stressed.

The document went on to "affirm" Washington's commitment to working together with partners besides Israel "to confront Iran's aggression and destabilizing activities, whether advanced directly or through proxies and terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad."

What Nuclear Weapons?

Iran has repeatedly indicated that it has no intention to pursue nuclear weapons, with officials touting the country's massive arsenal of conventional ballistic and cruise missiles as being sufficient to deter any foreign aggression. Each of the country's successive supreme rulers have also issued fatwas (religious rulings) against nukes, and weapons of mass destruction of any kind, saying such armaments are contrary to the tenets of Islam. Iran destroyed its Cold War-era stocks of chemical weapons in the 1990s, and never used them during the bloody war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Tehran has repeatedly asked world powers why its peaceful nuclear activities have received such scrutiny by the international community, while Israel's nuclear program, which allegedly includes a large-scale military component, has not received anywhere near the same level of attention or censure.

After arriving in Israel on Wednesday, President Biden warned that the US would authorize the use of force against Iran "as a last resort" to prevent the country from getting a nuclear weapon.

Israel has repeatedly threatened to act unilaterally to eliminate Iran's nuclear facilities, setting aside a special $1.5 billion fund inside last year's defense budget to make preparations to do so. Tel Aviv played an instrumental role in lobbying the Trump administration to pull out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which set limits on Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of sanctions, in 2018. In early 2021, as the Biden administration began informal negotiations with Iran and other parties to the JCPOA, Israel stressed that it would not be bound by any renewed nuclear deal, and reserves the right to handle the purported Iranian nuclear "threat" independently.

The US and Israel signed a 10-year memorandum of understanding in 2018, committing Washington to gift Tel Aviv $38 billion in military aid. In Thursday's joint declaration, the US expressed its strong support for "implementing the terms" of the "historic" MoU "in full."

Elsewhere in the joint partnership declaration published Thursday, Tel Aviv expressed its gratitude to Washington for its "ongoing and extensive support for deepening and broadening the historic Abraham Accords." Both countries also expressed their "concerns" about the "ongoing attacks against Ukraine" and expressed commitment to the country's "sovereignty and territorial integrity."

They also committed to "work together to combat all efforts to boycott or de-legitimize Israel," whether at the United Nations, or the International Criminal Court, and "firmly" rejected the Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign. "The two countries will use the tools at their disposal to fight every scourge and source of antisemitism," the declaration said, defining the term to include "bigotry and hatred or attempts to undermine Israel's rightful and legitimate place among the family of nations."