U.S. President, Joe Biden, has pledged to never allow Iran develop nuclear weapons, in comments ahead of a meeting with Israel’s outgoing President Reuven Rivlin.
“What I can say to you. Iran will never get a nuclear weapon on my watch,” Biden said ahead of the White House meeting.
The U.S. President, also told Rivlin, due to leave office on July 9, that his country “remained determined to counter Iran’s malign activity and support for terrorist proxies, which have destabilising consequences for the region.”
Biden’s comments, contained in a readout from their meeting, came a day after he ordered strikes on sites used by Iranian-backed militia groups on the Iraq-Syria border.
The groups were responsible for attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq, Biden said.
Negotiations, however, were under way to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
After the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the international nuclear agreement in 2018, Tehran turned its back on the limitations the deal placed on its nuclear programme.
The Islamic Republic then gradually expanded its nuclear activities in contravention of the agreements and restricted international nuclear inspections.
