Not only is the Iran nuclear threat to Israel, the Arab world, and the United States real and rising, it also has the potential to expand the number of Arab countries making peace with Israel, says President Joe Biden's point man in Israel.
In my wide-ranging conversation with U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides for THE ROSENBERG REPORT on TBN, Nides defended the Biden administration's diplomatic approach to deal with the Iran threat.
Indeed, as I wrote in my column yesterday, Nides said Biden is eager to see a nuclear deal 2.0 with the Iranian regime and that though discussions regarding the draft agreement have stalled in Vienna, the deal is certainly not "100% off the table."
But Nides went further.
Iran threat getting worse
He warned that Tehran is "very close to breakout" – that is, to making the decision to enrich uranium all the way to 90% or greater in order to create military-grade fuel to create an arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Just yesterday, "in a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran…informed the agency that it has started enriching uranium to 60% purity at Fordo site," said the semi-official ISNA news agency.
Such developments are driving incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prepare to order the IDF to launch a full-scale attack on Iran's nuclear facilities if the Biden administration does not move quickly and decisively to find another way to truly neutralize the Iran threat, says Tzachi Hanegbi, a longtime Member of Knesset and Netanyahu confidante.
Hanegbi explained Netanyahu's thinking in an interview with me on THE ROSENBERG REPORT on last week's show.
Could Israel and the saudis soon make peace?
That said, the growing Iran threat is also having another effect.
Nides told me the Biden administration is keenly aware of how worried Saudi Arabia and other Arab states are about Iran.
He also said that Biden is personally committed to brokering an Israeli-Saudi peace agreement and is working "tirelessly" towards this goal.
Why?
In large part to make both countries safer from Iran.
"We thought the Abraham Accords made Israel a safer place, right?" Nides told me. "Morocco, Bahrain, the Emirates, obviously let's not forget Jordan and Egypt – [all] that this makes this place [Israel] a stronger place. And I will I assure you, if Joe Biden was here, he would say, 'Listen, Joel, would I love a normalization between the Saudis and the Israelis? Of course we would. It would not only be great for Israel, it would be great for the Saudis, and be great for the region. So we're to work tirelessly with the Israelis and the Saudis.'"
Nides said pursuit of such an agreement is one of the main reasons that Biden visited Saudi Arabia last summer, despite Biden's sharp criticisms of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in recent years.
Will the Saudis listen to Biden?
Does MBS want to give Biden such a historic foreign policy win?
Honestly, I'm not certain.
But given that Netanyahu has also made an historic peace deal with the Saudis one of his top foreign policy goals, this is an area where Biden and Bibi may be able to work together.
It's certainly worth watching and praying for.
This article originally appeared on ALL ISRAEL NEWS and is reposted with permission.