A US-based analyst has derided President Joe Biden’s threat of using “force” against Iran during his visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, saying Americans and Israelis are aware of the “catastrophic” consequences of such threats.
Faraan: “Not bombing Iran despite the constant threats has been for good reason mindful of how catastrophic the outcome could be for Israel,” Giorgio Cafiero, the chief executive officer of Washington-based Persian Gulf State Analytics, told Press TV in an interview on Friday.
He said since the 1990s, the Israeli regime “has been threatening to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities” but hasn’t mustered the courage to walk the talk. “In terms of Biden threatening to use force as a last resort, it is doubtful that either the US or Israel would bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities,” said Cafiero, who is a regular contributor to the Washington-based think tank the Middle East Institute.
“Doing so would be too risky for either the US or Israel—hence why the Trump, Obama, and George W. Bush administrations all decided against doing so” On the joint “strategic declaration” signed between Washington and the occupying regime, the analyst stressed there is little difference between Biden and his predecessor Trump, insisting that both are “aligned extremely closely with Israel’s government on issues in the Middle East.”
“This is particularly so when it comes to Iran and the Abraham Accords,” he remarked, referring to the US-brokered agreements of normalization between Israel and some Arab regimes. Earlier on Friday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani slammed the US-Israel declaration against Iran, calling it a threat to all Islamic and Arab countries, and stressing that it seeks to promote the Israeli regime’s purported “military edge” in the region.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry says the new declaration signed by the US and Israel is a threat not just to Iran but to all Islamic and Arab countries. “The joint declaration of Biden and Lapid stresses America’s firm commitment to maintaining Israel’s security and military edge,” Kan’ani wrote in a Twitter post on Thursday. “Do not take it wrong: the aim is not just Iran, but rather, Arab and Islamic countries must always bow to the Zionist regime’s superiority.”
“Therefore, the main source of threat to the region is crystal clear,” he added. Iranian officials have repeatedly denounced the destabilizing activities of the occupying Israeli regime as the main source of insecurity in the region, warning regional countries about the perils of allowing Tel Aviv to establish a foothold in the region.
Pointing to repeated claims by Biden and the Israeli regime’s acting premier Yair Lapid that Iran should never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, Cafiero predicted the breakdown in talks aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), insisting that Washington and its allies in the Middle East “are preparing for the nuclear talks to collapse in acrimony.”
“The Biden administration seeks to make its positions on Iran-related issues clear to the Israelis while also understanding how Tel Aviv sees the Islamic Republic as we appear to be on the verge of entering a new era in which the JCPOA is permanently dead,” he said. Responding to a question about Biden’s planned meeting with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salam, Cafiero said the Ukraine conflict and the ensuing turmoil in global energy markets have pushed the US to reassess its ties with the Saudi regime and its leadership.
“The White House now believes that any moral costs of Biden visiting Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah will not outweigh the perceived benefits,” he said. “With the Biden administration viewing the kingdom as a critical US partner in the Middle East, the White House sees itself as having no choice but to engage Mohammed bin Salman more deeply.”
