Israeli PM Lapid unable to get Biden to discuss Iran deal: report

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid is reportedly unable to reach President Joe Biden to discuss the Iran nuclear deal, despite advances in talks with the Islamic Republic.

Lapid requested a meeting with Biden on Sept. 20, the same day the president is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly. However, this Israeli leader has been unable to speak to Biden on the phone, multiple sources told The Jerusalem Post. The White House first said Biden could not talk because of summer vacation, but the president returned to D.C. on Wednesday.

Iran, which has repeatedly called for "death to Israel" and is known in U.S. intelligence circles as the world's "foremost state sponsor of terrorism," would receive $100 billion a year under the proposed deal, Lapid said last week.

"On the table right now is a bad deal... This is $100 billion a year that will be used to undermine stability in the Middle East and spread terror around the globe," Lapid told reporters, stressing that the funding will go toward strengthening Iran's nuclear program and attacking U.S. military bases in the Middle East, as well as funding Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israel has been pessimistic about the Iran deal. When it was signed in 2015, then-Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu called the deal a "historic mistake."

"We have made it clear to everyone: if a deal is signed, it does not obligate Israel. We will act to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state," Lapid pledged last week.

On Friday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Gantz told Sullivan that Israel opposes the current nuclear deal.