Biden says US would use force as ‘last resort’ to prevent Iranian nuclear weapons

The United States would use force to prevent Iran from acquiring or developing nuclear weapons if all other options fail, President Joe Biden has said.

Mr Biden said the US would use its military to prevent Iran’s nuclear program from succeeding in bringing about a working nuclear weapon during an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 news.

After his interviewer raised prior comments in which Mr Biden had said he’d do anything to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, she asked if that meant he would use force against Iran.

Mr Biden replied: “If it’s the last resort, yes”.

The president also defended his administration’s push to restore the Obama-era agreement which had briefly halted Iran’s nuclear programme. The Biden administration has been in negotiations with Tehran in an attempt to bring back the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the deal negotiated between Iran, the EU, and the five permanent nuclear weapons states, the US, the UK, China, Russia, and France.

“The only thing worse than the Iran that exists now is the Iran with nuclear weapons,” Mr Biden said.

He added that he believes it was a “giant mistake” for the Trump administration to back out of the agreement because Iran is “closer to a nuclear weapon now than they were before,” but he also said he is committed to keeping Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organisations, even if it kills any chance of rebooting the agreement.