Biden says won't wait forever for Iran's response on nuclear deal

The United States will not wait forever for Tehran's response on returning to a 2015 nuclear deal, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday, following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

The United States and Iran have been holding indirect talks in an attempt to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement under which Iran had limited its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.

"We've laid out for the leadership of Iran what we're willing to accept in order to get back into the JCPOA. We're waiting for their response. When that will come, I'm not certain. But we are not going to wait forever."

In 2015, Iran signed an international deal capping projects with bomb-making potential. In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump quit the pact, deeming it insufficient, a withdrawal welcomed by Israel.

Iran has since ramped up some nuclear activities, putting a ticking clock on world powers' bid to return to a deal in Vienna talks. Israel now says it would support a new deal with tougher provisions. Iran has balked at submitting to further curbs.

"The only thing worse than the Iran which exists now is an Iran with nuclear weapons and if we can return to the deal, we can hold them tight," Biden said in an Israeli TV interview on Wednesday.

(Reuters)