“If this happens… we will reach a lasting, reliable agreement at a good pace. “Washington, in particular, must announce its decisions on removing sanctions and the remaining issues,” he said. “What remains are important and key issues that require specific political decisions,” he said at his weekly news conference. On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said it was time for the US to make political decisions to resolve key remaining issues, including on lifting sanctions, at talks aimed at reviving Tehran’s nuclear deal. Moscow and Tehran have strong political, economic, and military ties, shared interests in Afghanistan, and are key allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country’s decade-long civil war. This is the ultraconservative president’s most significant visit abroad since he took over in August from moderate Hassan Rouhani, who was the last Iranian president to visit Russia in March 2017. Kochavi reiterated Israel’s opposition to efforts by the Biden administration to revive the 2015 accord.Īdministration officials, however, have countered in talks with Kochavi and others in the new Israeli government that it’s worth giving diplomacy a shot at stopping Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapons system, even if it’s not guaranteed, the official said.Īssociated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this report.A camera directed on Palais Coburg, where closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, on December 17, 2021. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Rome with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, a centrist who along with Bennett and six other political allies built a fragile coalition government that put Netanyahu in the opposition.Īviv Kochavi, chief of staff of Israel Defense Forces, met last week with Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and other senior national security officials. The meeting with Rivlin comes one day after U.S. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, said Biden administration officials are starting at square one in building contacts with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, a relationship that eroded during the Trump administration. The latest conflict claimed at least 254 Palestinian lives and killed 13 people in Israel.īiden has low hopes, at least for the moment, of reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, according to an official familiar with Biden administration deliberations. The president also underscored his support for continued normalization of relations between Israel and countries in the Arab and Muslim world and planned to reiterate the administration’s promise to resupply Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which was depleted during the 11-day war with Hamas in Gaza. Both leaders stressed the friendship between their countries, although Rivlin noted disagreements as well.īiden said he and the Israeli president would talk about Iran and the aftermath of the Gaza war. Rivlin met later Monday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Isaac Herzog,a former parliament member who most recently headed a nonprofit that works closely with the government to promote immigration to Israel, will take over as Israeli president. Rivlin is set to leave office on July 7 after a seven-year term. Former President Donald Trump, with Netanyahu’s backing, scrapped the accord in 2018.īiden said he hoped to meet the new prime minister at the White House “very soon.” Fox News: Richard Grenell, the former acting director of National Intelligence under President Trump, said in an interview with CPAC that he believes Susan Rice has assumed the role of a shadow president. The Biden administration, meanwhile, has intensified efforts to revive Iran’s 2015 accord with world powers to limit Tehran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons. The meeting with Rivlin, who is making his final foreign trip of his presidency, took place just weeks after Naftali Bennett became Israel’s new prime minister, replacing Benjamin Netanyahu. “What I can say to you is that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon on my watch,” Biden said at the White House meeting. The rhetoric seemed to underscore that he would remain tough on malign Iran activity even as he seeks a diplomatic track to stem Tehran’s nuclear program. military says were used by Iran-backed militia groups near the border between Iraq and Syria. administration’s effort to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.īiden noted that he had ordered airstrikes a day earlier targeting facilities the U.S. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden sought to assure Israel that he would not tolerate a nuclear Iran as he met with outgoing Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday amid a major shakeup in Israeli politics and growing angst in Tel Aviv over the U.S. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.