'Israel won’t strike Iran without US'

Biden stresses next step is UN sanctions, not preemptive attack.

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER , JERUSALEM POST CORRESPON
biden tel aviv university 311 (photo credit: AP)
biden tel aviv university 311
(photo credit: AP)
WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that Israel would not attack Iran without consulting the United States and that Jerusalem clearly saw sanctions as the next step to deal with Teheran’s nuclear program.
“Everyone from the Israeli prime minister straight through to the British prime minister to the president of Russia – everyone agrees the next step we should take is the UN sanction route,” Biden said on ABC’s The View.
When asked whether Israel might take military action without consultation with the US, he replied, “They’re not going to do that.”
Biden also said he expected to see sanctions coming out of the UN in the next few weeks, estimating the timeline as “by the end of this month, beginning of next month.”
Though China, one of the five members of the United Nations SecurityCouncil with veto power, has repeatedly pushed for lighter sanctionsand expressed doubts about the wisdom of pursuing that path, Biden saidthat Beijing would support the UN effort.
“China will agree to sanctions,” Biden told TheView. “This is the first time the entire world is unified.Iran is out of bounds.”
US President Barack Obama has previously given the end of spring as thetime frame in which he expects to see UN sanctions approved.
Biden stressed, “We’re going to continue to keep the pressure on Iran.”