Biden opens Mideast visit with tough talk on Iran, reassurance to Israel

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

63% : Iran announced last week that it has enriched uranium to 60% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade quality.
46% : But indirect talks for the U.S. to reenter the deal as Iran has in developing its nuclear program.
45% : Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, though United Nations experts and Western intelligence agencies say Iran had an organized military nuclear program through 2003.
44% : Biden says military force is a 'last resort' option to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons JERUSALEM -- President Joe Biden on Wednesday opened his first visit to the Mideast since taking office by offering anxious Israeli leaders strong reassurances of his determination to stop saying he'd be willing to use force as a "last resort."
43% : Sanctions on the IRGC, which has carried out regional attacks, have been a sticking point in negotiations to bring Iran back into compliance with the agreement meant to keep it from having a nuclear weapon.
34% : Israelis seemed determined to underscore the imminent threat from Iran.
33% : He then reminded the U.S. president of the "security challenges emanating directly from Iran and its proxies, threatening Israel and its neighbors and endangering our region."
30% : Tehran also backs the rebel Houthis in a bloody war with the Saudis in Yemen.
24% : Biden said he would not remove Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, even if that kept Iran from rejoining the Iran nuclear deal.
12% : Asked about using military force against Iran, Biden said, "If that was the last resort, yes." U.S. ally Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy, citing its nuclear program, its calls for Israel's destruction and its support for hostile militant groups across the region.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.