Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday tried to reassure Israelis that the U.S. would punish Tehran if it violates the Iran nuclear accord.
“If in fact they break the deal, we will act,” Biden said after a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden is in Israel in attempt to quiet concerns over the U.S.-led nuclear deal signed in July and implemented in January, and to evaluate the prospects of renewing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks amid intensified violence. The two leaders also planned to discuss the renewing of an agreement providing billions of dollars worth of annual U.S. military aid to Israel.
Netanyahu led a high-profile campaign against the nuclear agreement, which stirred tensions between the two administrations.
The meeting also took place just as Iran has been testing ballistic missiles this week, which prompted U.S. officials to say those tests don’t violate the nuclear agreement. The White House has said it is still evaluating reports of missile tests on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The two leaders discussed a range of shared security concerns across the region, including the threat of the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations, the ongoing crisis in Syria, and Iran’s destabilizing activities. Biden reaffirmed the enduring and unshakable U.S. commitment to Israel’s security, noting unprecedented levels of security assistance provided by the Obama administration.
Still, the timing of his visit is a bit awkward because it came a day after the White House criticized the way Netanyahu canceled a meeting planned for March 18 with President Obama. White House officials say they learned about the cancellation through the press, instead of the prime minister’s office.
Netanyahu’s aides claim it was a mix up, and that Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer told the White House last week that Netanyahu was likely going to cancel his entire trip to Washington.
The trip also was overshadowed by a new string of Palestinian attacks, including a stabbing of American tourist Taylor Force, an Master of Business Administration student and former U.S. Army soldier who graduated from West Point. Force was killed and more than a dozen Israelis were wounded in the Tuesday attack.
The violence continued into Wednesday with a series of attacks that left an Israeli man seriously wounded. Biden noted that his wife and grandchildren were dining at a restaurant near the scene where Force was killed Tuesday.
“The United States of America condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these attacks,” he said in an apparent reference to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ silence on the violence. “This cannot become an accepted modus operandi. This cannot be viewed by civilized leaders as an appropriate way to behave.”
In fact, Abbas’ Fatah Party praised Force’s murder and called the assailant a “Palestinian martyr and a hero” on the party’s twitter feed and Facebook page.
Biden met with Abbas for an hour and a half later Wednesday but neither leader made public remarks.
