US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman cautioned Sunday that Nov. 3 win for Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden would have an adverse effect on the region and would undermine the progress made by the Trump administration to curb the threat Iran poses to the Middle East.
Speaking with the United Arab Emirates-based media outlet Al Ain News, Friedman said that Iran was the "most consequential issue of the election."
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"As you know, Joe Biden was part of the Obama administration that negotiated and implemented the Iran deal, something that President Trump – and I share his view – thinks was the worst international deal the US has ever entered into," Friedman said in an excerpt from the interview posted to Twitter.
He further warned that a Biden victory could have serious consequences for America's allies in the Middle East, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
"If Biden wins we will see a policy shift that, in my personal opinion, will be wrong and will be bad for the region, including for Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait," he told the Emirate daily. .
"President Trump thinks was the worst deal the US have ever entered into. It created a path for Iran to get a nuclear weapon," he explained adding that currently, Washington is "in a very good place in terms of the sanctions we have imposed upon Iran, and we think if we continue down this path, Iran will have no choice but to end its malign activity.
"We worked really hard to get Iran, I think, to a much better place. I would hate to think a new administration would undermine that but, regrettably, if Biden wins, I think they might," Friedman added.
n May 2018, US President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for UN-verified guarantees that it is not seeking nuclear weapons.
The Trump administration and Israel had expressed concern that the deal emboldened Iran, increased its support for terror, and had a sunset clause that would ultimately allow Iran the bomb.
Since breaking from the accord, the United States has slapped wave after wave of sanctions on Iran that have crippled its economy.
Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Tehran in 2018, and has since slapped several waves of sanctions on Iran, which have crippled the latter's economy.
Israel and the US believe that allowed any sort of leeway on its nuclear program, Iran would not hesitate to make a mad dash for a bomb. Tehran has vehemently denied that it's nuclear ambitions have military dimensions, claiming that any nuclear development would be used solely for civilian purposes.
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