US President Joe Biden, in a meeting on Monday with President Reuven Rivlin, said Iran will never get a nuclear weapon as long as he is in office.
“Iran will never get a nuclear weapon on my watch,” he said.
Biden also addressed Sunday’s US airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq.
“I directed [Sunday] night’s airstrikes targeting sites used by Iranian-backed militia groups in response to recent attacks on US personnel in Iraq,” he said.
“I just wanted to thank the president for being here,” Biden said at the beginning of their conversation at the Oval Office.
Biden assured Rivlin that his commitment to Israel “is ironclad” and that he has an “unwavering commitment to [Israel’s] self-defense.”
“My team and I are already working closely with the Israeli government that took office earlier this month,” he said. “I am looking forward to hosting Prime Minister [Naftali] Bennett at the White House very soon.”
Later on Monday evening, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi welcomed Rivlin on Capitol Hill to a meeting with a group of bipartisan lawmakers.
“The support for Israel in this Congress has always been strongly bipartisan, and it will continue to be so, because of our shared values and because of our mutual security concerns,” she told Rivlin at a photo opportunity.
Rivlin was scheduled to hold several meetings at the UN on Tuesday, first with Secretary-General António Guterres and later with 20 UN ambassadors, including those from Russia, the UK, the US, Bahrain and Morocco.
Rivlin also met with UAE Ambassador to the US c on Monday. In a tweet on Tuesday morning, he thanked him for his “key role” in the Abraham Accords.
Rivlin is expected to return to Israel on June 30 and be succeeded by Isaac Herzog on July 7.
Read the complete article at: The Jerusalem Post
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