U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks about the U.S. economy as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris stands watching their briefing with economic advisers in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., November 16, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarck/File Photo
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WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said he would use force as a last resort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons as he began a trip to the Middle East.
Speaking in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 television that was taped before he left Washington on Tuesday but aired on Wednesday, Biden said he would keep Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the US Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list ), even if it kills off the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Asked if his previous statements that he would prevent Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon meant he would use force against Iran, Biden said: “If it was a last resort, yes.”
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Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran struck a deal with six major powers in 2015 under which it curbed its nuclear program to make it harder to obtain weapons in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
US President Donald Trump pulled out of the accord in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to begin violating the deal’s nuclear restrictions about a year later.
Efforts to revive the deal have so far failed, with a senior U.S. official telling Reuters the chances of reviving it were slim after indirect talks between the United States and Iran in Doha two weeks ago. Read more
Negotiators appeared close to a new deal in March, but the talks broke down largely because of the US refusal to grant Tehran’s demand that Washington remove the KRG from the terrorist list, saying it was outside the scope of reviving the pact.
Asked if he was committed to keeping the IRGC on the FTO list, even if it killed the deal, Biden said, “Yes.”
The IRGC, a powerful political faction in Iran, controls a business empire as well as elite armed and intelligence forces that Washington accuses of a global terror campaign.
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Reporting by Arshad Muhammad Editing by Bill Berkrot
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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