Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that US President Joe Biden's Middle East tour beginning Wednesday July 13 would not bring security to Israel, an enemy country of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
US President Joe Biden is expected in Israel on Wednesday for his first tour of the Middle East, which will also take him to Saudi Arabia.
"
If the visits of American officials to the countries of the region are aimed at strengthening the position of the Zionist regime (Israel, editor's note) and normalizing its relations with certain states, these efforts will not bring security
" to Israel, declared Ebrahim Raisi, according to a press release from the Iranian presidency.
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Talks will 'mainly' focus on Iran
On the occasion of President Biden's visit to the region, the United States recently suggested that other Arab countries could normalize their relations with Israel, after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco in recent years.
Among these countries is especially Saudi Arabia, which shares with Israel a deep mistrust vis-à-vis Iran.
Joe Biden's talks in Israel will focus "
mostly
" on Iran, according to Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
In particular, Israel is trying to prevent Western powers, including the United States, from putting back on track a 2015 international pact governing Iran's nuclear program, which Donald Trump scuttled in 2018.
Considered by experts as the only nuclear power in the Middle East, the Jewish state sees as a threat to its security the nuclear program of Iran, which denies seeking to obtain atomic weapons.
Ebrahim Raïssi said he was closely following “
all developments
” in the region.
“
We repeated to those who conveyed messages from the United States that if the slightest gesture were made against the territorial integrity of Iran, we would respond decisively
,” he warned.
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Iran last week denounced as "
provocative
" the United States' plan to strengthen cooperation between its Middle Eastern allies in the field of air defense.
It is a "
provocative proposal (...) and a threat to national and regional security
", declared the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanani.
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