The Biden administration is prepared to “turn to other options” if diplomacy fails in preventing the advancement of Iran’s nuclear program, according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
“President Biden is committed to ensuring Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon and believes diplomacy, in coordination with allies and regional partners, is the best path to achieve that goal,” Psaki said. “We believe a diplomatic resolution offers the best path to avoiding a nuclear crisis. However, given the ongoing advances in Iran’s nuclear program, the President has asked his team to be prepared in the event that diplomacy fails and we must turn to other options, and that requires preparations.”
“If diplomacy cannot get on track soon, and if Iran’s nuclear program continues to accelerate, then we will have no choice but to take additional measures to further restrict Iran’s revenue-producing sectors,” she continued.
Psaki later said that the Biden administration has “presented a diplomatic path forward; that path is still open. But based on the outcome of the last round of talks and the ongoing advancements in Iran’s nuclear facilities, we are laying the path for — the groundwork for another path entirely. So, it’s just meant to be preparations.”
The Biden administration is still pushing to return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, which consisted of the United States paying Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, to temporarily reduce nuclear activity.
The JCPOA was widely criticized as Iran used the funds they were given by the United States through the deal, estimated to be between $100 to $150 billion, to fund terrorism in the Middle East. Additionally, Iran secretly violated the nuclear deal after it was passed.
In 2019, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, revealed that the Iran nuclear deal required Iran to destroy parts of their nuclear reactors by filling them with cement, but Iran secretly obtained replacement parts so the functionality of the nuclear reactors would not be ultimately affected. Salehi also said that pictures of the nuclear reactors filled with cement had been photoshopped.
Reports from watchdog organizations monitoring foreign media have also found that Iran has been funding Palestinian terrorist organizations attacking Israel.
In a transcript provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Palestinian Islamic Jihad Official Ramez Al-Halabi said, “The mujahideen in Gaza and in Lebanon use Iranian weapons to strike the Zionists. We buy our weapons with Iranian money. An important part of our activity is under the supervision of Iranian experts. The contours of the victories in Palestine as of late were outlined with the blood of Qasem Soleimani, Iranian blood.”
Al-Halabi later added, “I am not sorry, I am proud to say that the rockets that are used to pound Tel Aviv have an Iranian signature on them, the signature of Qasem Soleimani. The Kornet missiles that we use to blow up the Israeli tanks – the pride of the Israeli and global defense industry – are the Kornet missiles of Qasem Soleimani and Iran. The guns that we use to shoot at the Israeli enemy … Those who use these guns were trained by our brothers in the IRGC. We say this loud and clear.”
As reports of President Biden’s intention to return to the JCPOA surfaced earlier this year, then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning about making such agreements with extremist regimes.
“A nuclear agreement with Iran is again on the table, but history has taught us that agreements like this with extremist regimes are worth as much as garlic peel,” Netanyahu warned. “To our best friends I say – an agreement with Iran which paves its way to nuclear weapons that threaten us with destruction – an agreement like this will not bind us.”