Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said, days before US President Joe Biden's visit to the region next week, that economic sanctions must be re-imposed on Iran forcefully, stressing that his country reserves the freedom to act against Tehran and its nuclear project at the political and military levels.

Lapid indicated - at the beginning of his weekly cabinet meeting - that President Biden's going directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia carries with him a "message of peace and hope."

He added, "The visit of the American president will address opportunities and risks that will focus first of all on the Iranian issue. We must return to the UN Security Council and reactivate the sanctions regime with full force. We reserve the freedom to act diplomatically and operationally against the Iranian nuclear program. We also thank the president once again that the United States Sanctions remain against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards."

President Biden had announced - in an article in The Washington Post on Saturday - that he would travel to the Middle East next week to start a new and promising chapter for the American role in the region, as he put it.

He stated that his visit comes at a vital time for the region, and will contribute to the promotion of American interests, noting that the Middle East he will visit has become more stable than what his administration inherited a year and a half ago, and that a more secure and integrated Middle East benefits Americans in many ways.

Biden revealed in the article that his administration passed the largest support package to Israel in history, estimated at more than 4 billion dollars, noting that the Middle East waterways are necessary for global trade and its energy resources to mitigate the impact of Russia's war on Ukraine.


provocative idea

On the other hand, Iranian Intelligence Minister Ismail Khatib said that Biden's visit means America's official return to the region with the centralization of the Zionist entity after the failure of all its plans against Iran.

Khatib explained that dozens of intelligence agencies in the world are active against Iran, and are working to exploit the economic demands of the people to inflame them against the government and spread despair and dissatisfaction with the performance of the Islamic regime in the country, as he put it.

In turn, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the idea of ​​the United States to integrate Israeli air defense with Arab countries to confront Iran is a provocative idea and poses a threat to Iran's national and regional security.

She added that Washington does not understand the realities of the region and spreads discord among its countries, and is only working to demonize Tehran.

She also said that pumping arms into the region does not bring security, and that achieving stability is achieved through collective cooperation, stressing Tehran's commitment to the policy of good neighborliness, and noting that sustainable regional security requires advancing inter-state understanding.


Fordow reactor

In the latest developments in the Iranian nuclear file, Tehran confirmed on Sunday that it had succeeded in producing 20% ​​enriched uranium at the Fordow facility, which is the final technical step in production.

The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report on Saturday that Iran had increased the level of uranium enrichment using a set of 166 advanced IR6 centrifuges in the underground facility, which can easily switch between levels of uranium. fertilization;

Enhancing uranium enrichment at Fordow is the latest of several steps that Iran had long threatened to take, but refrained from implementing until the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors adopted last June a resolution criticizing Tehran for its failure to explain the presence of uranium traces at sites that it had not. announce it.