Israeli president calls Iran "greatest challenge" facing Israel, US

Israel's President Isaac Herzog told a joint session of the US Congress on July 19 to gighlight multiple issues, including the threats coming from Iran.

Turning to Israel’s external threats, Herzog characterized the Iranian nuclear program as “perhaps the greatest challenge Israel and the United States face at this time.”

“Allowing Iran to become a nuclear threshold state – whether by omission or by diplomatic commission – is unacceptable,” he said, The Times of Israel reports.

Both the US and Israel have stated that they are committed to blocking Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon but Jerusalem has opposed Washington’s efforts to do so diplomatically and has insisted that the US must present a credible military threat in order to thwart Tehran.

“The world cannot remain indifferent to the Iranian regime’s call to wipe Israel off the map. Tolerating this call and Iran’s measures to realize it, is an inexcusable moral collapse,” Herzog said. “Backed by the free world, Israel and the United States must act forcefully together to prevent Iran’s fundamental threat to international security.”

On July 18, Herzog got guranatees from the US President Joe Biden that Washington stands firmly against Iran's nuclear weapon aspirations.

President Biden pledged that Iran will never achieve nuclear weapons, noting that the US commitment to Israel’s security is "ironclad."

"As I told Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu yesterday, America’s commitment to Israel is firm and is ironclad, and we are committed as well to ensure that Iran never acquires nuclear weapons, so we have a lot to talk about," said Biden.

He also called the alliance between the two countries "simply unbreakable." Biden then addressed several joint achievements of the United States and Israel over the last year, including the maritime border agreement between Israel and Lebanon, the opening of a flight route over Saudi skies, and bringing together Israelis and Palestinians at the Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh summits.