By Alarabiya

Iran is still �a good way away� from acquiring a nuclear weapon, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday, insisting the United States would stop Tehran before it was too late.

President Barack Obama�s number two came under attack during testy exchanges on Iran with Republican opposite number Paul Ryan in a one-off vice presidential election debate less than four week from election day.

�When Barack Obama was elected, they had enough nuclear material to make one bomb. Now they have enough for five. They�re four years closer toward nuclear weapons capability,� Ryan said.



Appearing incredulous and punctuating his reply with exclamations like �Incredible,� �A bunch of stuff,� and �We Irish call it malarkey,� the Irish-American Biden launched a stinging counter-attack.

�Facts matter. All this loose talk about all they have to do is get to enrich uranium and they have a weapon. Not true. Not true,� he said.

�If we ever have to take action, unlike when we took office, we�ll have the world behind us. And that matters. That matters.�

�The Israelis and the United States and the military intelligence communities are in the same exact place in terms of how close the Iranians are to getting a nuclear weapon. They are a good way away. There is no difference between our view and theirs,� he said.

�These are the most crippling sanctions in the history of sanctions, period, period. Are you going to go to war? Is that what you want to do now?� the vice president challenged his opponent, 27 years his younger.

�Let�s just look at this from the view of the ayatollahs,� countered Ryan.

�What do they see? They see this administration trying to water down sanctions in congress for over two years. They�re moving faster toward a nuclear weapon. They�re spinning the centrifuges faster.�

Biden, clearly irritated, replied: �Let me tell you what the ayatollah sees. He sees his economy being crippled. The ayatollah sees there are 50 percent fewer exports of oil.

�He sees the currency going into the tank. He sees the economy going into a freefall. And he sees the world for the first time totally united in opposition to him getting a nuclear weapon,� he said.

�We will not allow the Iranians to get a nuclear weapon,� he added.

 

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