Iran says Biden made 'illegal threat' in talks with Israeli leader
A top Iranian security official on Saturday condemned comments made by US President Joe Biden about Washington's plan should ongoing negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme fail.
Biden made the comments on Friday after holding a face-to-face meeting with new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the White House.
Israel and Iran are regional foes, and Bennett wants Biden to take a hard line in discussions in Tehran.
The president said he was putting "diplomacy first" as he tries to curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions, but Biden told Bennett he could take another route if the months-long negotiations happening in Vienna eventually go nowhere.
"We're putting diplomacy first and see where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails, we're ready to turn to other options," Biden said.
Iranian General Ali Shamkhani, who heads the Supreme National Security Council, said Biden's words amounted to an "illegal threat."
"Biden used the term 'other options' and this is clearly an illegal threat against another country," tweeted Shamkhani. Therefore, Iran will also consider its "other options" in regards to the US, he said.
The US and Iran have not had diplomatic relations with each other for more than 40 years. After Hassan Rowhani was elected president in 2013, he and his then US counterpart Barack Obama tried to find a compromise in the dispute over the Iranian nuclear programme.
An accord was hammered out with other world powers in Vienna in 2015, but Obama's successor Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018. In addition, Trump imposed tough sanctions on the country, plunging oil-rich Iran into the worst economic crisis in its history.
Since 2019, Iran has no longer adhered to its technical obligations under the Vienna nuclear agreement, with experts concerned it may be moving closer to producing a nuclear weapon.
Diplomatic mediation attempts between Washington and Tehran to save the nuclear deal have been under way in Vienna since April. However, the talks have been suspended for two months as the Iranian presidency passed from moderate Rowhani to hardliner Ebrahim Raisi.
