A fanatical pariah state is on the cusp of nuclear breakout. The leader of the free world steps in to offer a solution. The threat of a nuclear World War iii looms over negotiations. Then, the man tasked with saving the world disappears. And his superiors are tight-lipped about what happened to him.

This is what is going on right now with United States Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley. On April 22, the Federal Bureau of Investigation suspended Malley’s security clearance for classified information, without any announcement. Malley kept up limited work with the U.S. State Department until media reported his suspension in June. Since then, he has been on unpaid leave. And to this day, nobody in Washington is saying what happened.

In 2021, Malley began resurrecting the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (jcpoa), Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, withdrew from the jcpoa. He saw that it helped, rather than hindered, Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon. (And rightly so.) Malley was one of Obama’s main negotiators for the jcpoa.

Malley’s success in 2015 gave him his old job back. However, in his current assignment, Malley seems to have fallen afoul with somebody. cbs News was told by anonymous sources that the fbi is investigating Malley for mishandling classified information.

Malley himself has maintained a low profile since news broke. Iranian media claimed Malley shared confidential information with the Iranian diaspora, prompting his removal.

Much is unclear. But it’s not only the general public who is in the dark. The executive government had also been withholding information from Congress.

The Washington Post interviewed Rep. Michael McCaul, the House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, on July 17. Leigh Ann Caldwell asked McCaul about Malley. McCaul responded:

We’ve been asking for [Malley’s] testimony [in Congress] for months, and [the State Department] have given us excuses like personal life issues. They were not transparent with us. Obviously, there’s something else going on. … [W]e need to know what is going on. We need to be briefed in the Congress. By law, they’re required to do so, and we have asked for that classified briefing. And if they do not, then we’re prepared to move forward with a subpoena and eventually another contempt proceeding, if necessary.

The State Department later said it would be willing to go forward with a briefing. But the National quoted a Committee member in an August 2 article that the government “refused to provide us any significant new information, including the reason his security clearance was revoked.”

Pressure from Republican senators led to State Department Acting Inspector General Diana Shaw to start an investigation of Malley’s security clearance issues. The preliminary review has still not been concluded.

This is no trivial issue. Iran is the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism. Its radical Islamist regime is on the cusp of obtaining a nuclear weapon. As Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in his booklet The King of the South, “What is at stake is nothing less than human survival.”

Malley’s dismissal—in the context of intelligence leaks—could suggest that someone got a hold of some very sensitive information. Iran may have acquired some empowering intelligence it wasn’t supposed to know. But the whole point of the nuclear negotiations is to empower Iran anyway. An outsider may have learned something on just how corrupt the negotiations really are.

Barack Obama, whether during his official presidency or the surrogate presidency of Joe Biden, has for years trusted Robert Malley to craft his dream Iran nuclear deal. A regime insider like Malley doesn’t get suddenly tossed on the pile without explanation for no reason. As Representative McCaul stated, “there’s something else going on.”

There is enough information floating around to show that something is changing with the Iran nuclear deal. But until more information surfaces, the physical details are limited. Until then, please read Chapter 2 of The King of the South for the backstory of America and Iran’s nuclear deal.