Iran responded on Thursday to US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel and said that as long as Washington's main goal was to maintain "the fake state of Israel's security," the Middle East will not achieve stability and peace.
"As long as the fake state of Israel is the first stop on the American presidents’ visits to the region and their first goal is to maintain its security and superiority, the regional nations and countries will not achieve peace and stability," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani, according to Reuters.
The statement came hours after Biden and Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a document in Jerusalem in which both countries pledge to deny Iran nuclear arms.
Also on Thursday, Biden met with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who urged the President to keep the military option on the table vis-à-vis Iran’s nuclear program.
Netanyahu argued that without the possibility of a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Tehran will not be deterred from its plans to achieve a nuclear weapon capacity.
On Wednesday, Biden defended his pursuit of returning to the Iran nuclear deal in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News describing a return to the deal as the only path forward to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Biden stressed that he would not allow Iran to go nuclear – "I'm not going to speculate on that. But Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon" – and described using military force as still on the table but as a “the last resort.”