Iran's Foreign Ministry on Sunday accused the United States of using "Iranophobia" to create regional tension during President Joe Biden's visit to the Middle East, Reuters reported.
"The United States has once again sought to create tension and crisis in the region by appealing to the failed policy of Iranophobia," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani was quoted as having said.
On Thursday, Kanaani responded to 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," he said.
Kanaani’s 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.
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.”
Iran scaled back its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018, but has held several rounds of indirect talks with the US on a return to the agreement.
An agreement was nearly reached before the talks stopped in March.
France's Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, said this past week there were only a few weeks left to revive the deal and it was up to Iran to decide whether to sign what had been negotiated.
On Friday, a senior European Union (EU) official said that negotiations to bring Iran back into compliance with the deal are coming to an end, but it is not clear if they will result in an agreement between Tehran and world powers.