White House communications director Kate Bedingfield refused to address whether the Biden administration would take measures against Israel over reports of the country’s repeated attempts to bomb Iran’s nuclear reactors.
The Iranian government claims Israel has repeatedly attempted to sabotage its nuclear program following the suspension of the Democrat-led 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal, an agreement that former President Donald Trump pulled out of in 2018.
Last month, Iranian authorities arrested operatives allegedly linked to Israel for attempting to demolish its nuclear Fordo facility, Iran’s second uranium enrichment plant.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence unit claims the perpetrators “planned on sabotaging the Fordo facility and were arrested by the intelligence services of the Revolutionary Guards”.
It remains unclear whether Israel is actually involved in the plot to demolish the nuclear facility or if Iran is scapegoating the Jewish state.
When asked by White House correspondent Anthony Harper during a press briefing this week whether the Biden administration would take action against Israel for its alleged attempts to attack Iran’s nuclear reactors, Bedingfield mockingly laughed at Harper and changed the subject.
“I am not going to get into that kind of hypothetical,” the White House spokesperson, who made her first-ever appearance at the White House briefing room lectern on Tuesday, scoffed.
“But thank you for asking the question,” she added while condescendingly chuckling.
Bedingfield’s evasion of questions surrounding escalating tensions between Iran and Israel comes as Republican lawmakers warn against the Biden administration’s plans to remove Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list as part of efforts to revive the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.
In a March 22 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, more than 80 Republicans sounded the alarm on the Biden administration’s effort “to legitimize the IRGC’s reckless, destabilizing, and antisemitic actions throughout the Middle East.”
“The IRGC continues to actively participate in acts of terror and destabilizing actions in the region—particularly against one of our closest allies, Israel. It is also a chief supporter and enabler of other FTOs and insurgent groups in the region. These organizations include, but are not limited to: Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthi insurgency,” they wrote. “The IRGC’s actions have led to decades of instability and conflict across the Middle East and the group is responsible for countless deaths, including more than 600 U.S. troops during the occupation of Iraq.”
Blinken vowed on Sunday during a news conference in Jerusalem with Israel Foreign minister Yair Lapid, that the United States and Israel are committed to ensuring Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon but insisted on a reimplementation of the 2015 nuclear accord deal with Tehran would deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
The Biden administration believes that “the return to full implementation” of the deal was “the best way to put Iran’s program back in the box that it was in but has escaped since the United States withdrew from the agreement,” Blinken said.
“When it comes to the most important element, [Israel and the US] see eye to eye. We are both committed, both determined, that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon,” he continued.
