How America is helping Iran get a nuclear arsenal
As Iran reportedly reaches the brink of obtaining enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, the Biden administration is now astoundingly colluding with this lethal rogue state against the interests of Israel and America’s allies in the region.
The US State Department is waiving sanctions on Iran’s civilian nuclear program. The Biden administration hopes this will persuade Tehran to return to compliance with the 2015 deal that it has been violating since former President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions.
Lifting them releases Iran’s frozen funds held abroad, estimated at some $29 billion or about one-third of its foreign assets. Iran will once against be allowed to trade with the rest of the world using global banking systems. Sanctions against exports of Iranian oil will also be removed. Foreign firms will once again be allowed to invest in Iran’s commodities.
With these funds, the Iranian regime will be shored up in power, receive the resources to ratchet up its aggressive activities abroad and be confident that it can finish developing nuclear weapons with impunity. …
It’s hard to imagine that the Biden administration can be so stupid. What’s more likely is that — astonishingly — it is either indifferent to Iran getting the bomb or even actually wants it to do so.
After all, the administration is stuffed with people who are the enemies of Israel and the west. President Joe Biden’s envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, whitewashed Yasser Arafat’s duplicity at Camp David and has a long track record of sympathy for the Iranian regime and animus towards Israel.
And since it gained power, the administration has been pivoting away from its allies in the Gulf towards their Iranian foe. This near-incomprehensible position was explained last year in a devastating and authoritative piece in Tablet by Michael Doran and Tony Badran.
The appeasement of Iran, they wrote, could be described as the third and final stage of former President Barack Obama’s hitherto unfinished policy. This had sought to achieve a new Middle East order which relied on partnership with Iran.
The aim was for America to withdraw from engagement in the Middle East. To enable that to happen, there had to be a new equilibrium between states to achieve a balance of power. The authors called this policy the “Realignment”.
It’s not too fanciful to see this as Obama’s strategy, since Biden has remained close to him while key Biden staffers, such as Malley, are even closer.