Israeli Official Warns of War With Iran if Biden Returns to Nuclear Deal

Biden has said he would return to the deal, settlement minister warns it would lead to a violent confrontation

An Israeli official said that if Joe Biden wins the US presidential election and returns to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, it could lead to a war between Iran and Israel.

Israel’s Settlement Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, a member of the right-wing Likud party, made the comments on Wednesday night. “Biden has said openly for a long time that he will go back to the nuclear agreement,” he said. “I see that as something that will lead to a confrontation between Israel and Iran.”

Biden has said that he would work with Iran to return to the 2015 nuclear deal if he is elected president. “If Biden stays with that policy, there will, in the end, be a violent confrontation between Israel and Iran,” Hanegbi.

Hanegbi told Israeli media that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saw the 2015 nuclear deal as “mistaken – and that’s an understatement.”

Hanegbi also said he is not concerned with how a Biden victory would impact US policy in other areas, including settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law. The US considered the settlements illegal until the Trump administration reversed the policy in 2019.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.