Israel’s Gantz Says He Told US Officials Iran Is ‘Biggest Threat’ to Global Peace

Gantz met with Lloyd Austin and Antony Blinken on Thursday

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Friday that he told US officials during a visit to Washington that Iran is the “biggest threat” to global peace.

Gantz met with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday. At the Israeli American Council’s national summit in Florida on Friday, Gantz said he used “every occasion” during the meetings to say, “Iran is first and foremost the biggest threat to global and regional peace and stability, and only then is it a threat to Israel.”

Gantz said it’s not up to Israel to deal with Iran alone and that the world should take action. “The international community, with US leadership, must stand together and act forcefully against Iran’s hegemonic aspirations and nuclear program and restore stability for the sake of global peace,” he said.

The fact that Gantz claims Iran has hegemonic aspirations and is a threat to the world exposes the absurdity of the Israeli rhetoric against Iran. Regardless, the US has been coordinating very closely with Israel on Iran amid negotiations to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

At the same summit, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan claimed the Biden administration agrees with Israel’s view that the JCPOA would not stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. But CIA Director William Burns recently contradicted Israeli claims that Iran is seeking a bomb and said that the US has no evidence Tehran has decided to weaponize its civilian nuclear program.

During his visit with Austin on Thursday, Gantz called for “joint military readiness” between the US and Israel against Iran. Austin said the US was prepared to “turn to other options” if talks to revive the JCPOA failed. Also on Thursday, the White House said President Biden ordered his administrations to prepare “other options” in case the JCPOA isn’t revived.

Author: Dave DeCamp

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