JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side Thursday and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power. They parted ways, though, on how to get there.
Biden, in a joint news conference after a one-on-one meeting with the Israeli leader, said he still wants to give diplomacy a chance. Moments earlier, Lapid insisted that words alone won’t thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
While Biden suggested his patience with Iran was running low, he held out hope that Iran can be persuaded to rejoin a dormant deal intended to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.
“I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome,” Biden said on the second day of a four-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia. He also stressed on his first trip to the Middle East as president the importance of furthering ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Hours before Biden was set to become the first U.S. leader to fly directly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s General Authority of Civil Aviation announced early Friday “the decision to open the Kingdom’s airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the Authority for overflying.”
It signaled the end of its longstanding ban on Israeli airliners overflying its territory — an incremental step toward the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel that builds on the strong but informal ties the erstwhile foes have developed in recent years over their shared concerns about Iran’s growing influence in the region.
“President Biden welcomes and commends the historic decision by the leadership of Saudi Arabia to open Saudi airspace to all civilian carriers without discrimination, a decision that includes flights to and from Israel,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement early Friday.
Biden’s emphasis on a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program contrasted with Lapid, who said Iran must face a real threat of force before it will agree to give up on its nuclear ambitions.
“Words will not stop them, Mr. President. Diplomacy will not stop them,” Lapid said. “The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program the free world will use force.”
Lapid suggested he and Biden were in agreement, despite his tougher rhetoric toward Iran.
“I don’t think there’s light between us,” he said. “We cannot allow Iran to become nuclear.”
Biden, too, said, “We will not, let me say it again, we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
