US President Joe Biden defended his record on Iran in his opinion article published by The Washington Post over the weekend, claiming that the Middle East is “more stable and secure” now than during the Trump presidency.

“With respect to Iran, we reunited with allies and partners in Europe and around the world to reverse our isolation; now it is Iran that is isolated until it returns to the nuclear deal my predecessor abandoned with no plan for what might replace it,” Biden wrote.

Biden conveniently ignored many facts, namely the outrageous concessions the Biden administration was willing to grant to Iran in return for a deal. He also ignored the fact that Iran rapidly escalated its nuclear program to unprecedented levels during his presidency, and increased its aggressive attacks against the US and other targets. According to Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, US troops have been targeted at least 29 times since October 2021 without any US military response.

Israeli officials are far from satisfied with Biden’s Iran record. In the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Yair Lapid called on the international community, including the US and the UN, to impose new sanctions on Iran in light of recent reports.

An Israeli diplomatic official told Yisrael Hayom: “As the prime minister said, we want to take the matter to the UN Security Council and activate snapback sanctions against Iran under the 2015 deal’s provisions for violations. The US won’t agree.”

A Western intelligence official told Yisrael Hayom: “The US also avoided warning Argentina about the suspicious plane that landed there, even though it had the information. Other, extra-governmental officials were the ones who handed the information over to the Argentinian authorities.”

The official said that there are many steps the US is choosing not to take against Iran in order not to completely thwart the signing of a new deal, including keeping the Iran-sponsored Houthis in Yemen off the US terror list and refraining from acting on the warming of ties between Iran and Venezuela.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Professor Jacob Nagel, former head of Israel’s National Security Council, told Yisrael Hayom that the Biden administration is still hoping to reach a new nuclear deal.

“Robert Malley, who is heading the US negotiating team and whose positions are seen as problematic for Israel, is trying to press the administration to show even more flexibility – much beyond the terms of the original deal,” he said. “What is encouraging is that thus far, Malley can’t manage to enlist support in Washington, but here in Israel there are a few security officials and former security officials who are backing his approach and who talk about a return to the nuclear deal as the lesser evil.”

“This would be a dangerous mistake that would remove Israel’s legitimacy to take action against Iran, while buying time that is irrelevant. This is because of the danger that under the deal, the Iranians could move ahead toward a nuclear bomb before Israel is able to upgrade its level of readiness for a military option.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)