Op-Ed: The Iran Insanity Continues Thanks to Biden’s Desperation

Op-Ed: The Iran Insanity Continues Thanks to Biden’s Desperation

By: Eric R. Levine

In response to President Trump’s withdrawal from Barack Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Presidential candidate Joe Biden announced that as President he would reenter the JCPOA and “work with our allies to make it longer and stronger.”   That, Biden claimed, would curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and moderate the malign behavior of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.  The strategy was a dream, based on a fantasy, rooted in lunacy.

Of course, the mere fact that Biden is seeking a “longer and stronger” deal, puts the lie to Obama’s and John Kerry’s repeated claims to Congress and the American people that the JCPOA blocked all paths for Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.  If that was true, why do we need a “longer and stronger” deal.  Even Joe Biden understood that the Iran Nuclear Deal gave the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism a legal path to nuclear weapon, a ballistic missile system with which to deliver it, and billions of dollars in sanctions relief to fund its global terrorist network.

The strategy entails reentering the deal and then persuading Iran to make more concessions.  It is like selling your house for $500,000 and then after the closing, asking the buyer to pay you another $500,000.  No rational person could possibly believe this was feasible.  The idea is particularly inane when one considers the number of concessions Obama made just to get the Ayatollah to say “yes” to a legal path to a nuclear weapon in the original deal.

What makes the chances of “success” even more remote is Administration’s failure to have learned anything from the failed Obama and Kerry appeasement strategy.

From the moment Biden took office, he and his team of Obama retreads begged, pleaded and groveled before the Ayatollah in an effort to persuade him to return to the 2015 arrangement.  There has been virtually no limits to the concessions Biden is willing to make to appease the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.  Over bi-partisan objections in Congress, he has failed to enforce certain sanctions on Iran without obtaining any concessions in return from the Islamic Republic.   Indeed, he is so desperate for a deal that he is unwilling to protect and defend American forces deployed in Iraq and Syria when attacked either directly by Iran or indirectly by Iran through its terrorist proxies, for fear Khamenei will walk away from the negotiating table for good.  There have been more than 80 such attacks on US Service Members for which there has been no meaningful retaliation against Iran.  This is on top of Iran being directly responsible for one third of the American dead and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.  It is a national disgraceful.

This White House clearly suffers from an inability to distinguish between allies and enemies.  Precisely who are these “allies” that will work with us for this “longer and stronger” deal?   It is certainly not Israel; America’s closest and most important ally in the region, if not the world and the nation most impacted by Iran’s efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon.  From across the political spectrum, Israelis oppose the JCPOA and Biden’s efforts to return to it.  Neither is it our Sunni Arab partners who are also unalterably opposed to a nuclear Iran.

Perhaps Biden was referring to our dear friends and allies, China and Russia who are part of the P5+1 (the UN Security Council Members plus Germany), who are working with the Administration to reach a deal with Iran.  Indeed, Biden is so desperate for a deal that he allowed Russia to act as an interlocutor between America and Iran because the Ayatollah refused to allow his negotiators to speak directly to US representatives.  Putin was working on our behalf.  What could go wrong?  That structure remained in place until Russia invaded Ukraine.  Since then, Iran and Russia have become close strategic allies to the point where Iran now is supplying Russia with drones to kill Ukrainians.

Just as Russia has been empowered by America’s efforts to reach an arrangement with Iran, so too has China been a direct beneficiary of Biden’s incompetence.  Rather than supporting Israel and our Arab partners’ efforts to confront Iran and expand the Abraham Accords, Biden has spent his entire Administration undermining Saudi Arabia and the UAE.  These missteps, coupled with the catastrophic surrender in Afghanistan, have persuaded our Arab partners that America is unreliable and has pushed them closer to China who is seeking to displace America as the world’s preeminent superpower.  The recent China brokered agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran should be a wakeup call the comatose Biden Administration.

When China, Russia, and Iran are the primary beneficiaries of an American policy, perhaps it is time to rethink the policy. Alas, that mental acuity appears to be a bridge to far for the Biden Team.

Fortunately for the world, Biden’s efforts failed.  Had the US reentered the deal it would have again placed the world’s imprimatur on Iran’s nuclear program and put the United States in the position of being its guarantor.  It failed however not for a lack of American begging.  It failed because Iran has no interest in any deal that inhibits its ability to develop, possess, and deploy a nuclear weapon.

Unfortunately, this Administration is incapable of taking “no” for an answer.  It has convinced itself it must have a deal; any deal no matter how weak, ineffectual, or counterproductive it might be.  Just getting Iran to say “yes” to something has replaced stopping its nuclear program as this Administration’s top priority.  Determined to achieve its prime objective, it now appears on the cusp of making a new arrangement with Iran.  The new arrangement will not be in writing.  It will be based on a “handshake” assuming Iran is willing to be in the same room as the American “negotiators.”   It is absolutely farcical.

It has been reported that the “terms” of the new arrangement will not require Iran to dismantle or roll back any of its nuclear capabilities.  The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei made that point last week. While expressing support for the agreement he the stated that “the existing infrastructure of the nuclear industry should not be touched.”

That is significant because Iran is a nuclear-threshold state.  It has both the technical capabilities and fissile material needed to make a nuclear weapon.  Purportedly the deal provides that in exchange for agreeing to remain a threshold state rather a breakout state, the United States will immediately lift sanctions on Iran freeing up tens of billions of dollars.  These are monies that will be used to fund the Iranian military, the Ayatollah’s hegemonic goals in the region and feed the coffers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as it trains and arms Hezbollah and Hamas and the rest of its international terrorist network.  What makes the bad deal worse, is that there are no enforcement mechanisms to ensure Iran will not secretly breakout.  This is reminiscent of the JCPOA’s provision that prohibited inspections of Iran’s military bases.  It does not take much imagination to know where Iran’s nuclear program was developed.

Once the sanctions are lifted, President Zelensky will be able to say that when an Iranian drone is fired on a Ukrainian position, “the United States paid for that.”  When Hamas fires missiles out of Gaza or Hezbollah launches rockets out of Lebanon at Israeli cities, Israelis can say, “the United States paid for that.”  Most offensively, when an Iranian drone attacks American servicemembers in Syria, the parents of the dead and wounded can say, “America’s Commander-In-Chief paid for that.”

So, what does America get out this?  America gets absolutely nothing.  However, President Biden believes he gets two things.  First, assuming Iran keeps its word, it will delay the day Iran breakouts until after the 2024 election.  Biden will claim he derailed Iran’s nuclear ambitions.  Of course, what says the day after the 2024 election when Iran breakouts, will be interesting to hear.  That is assuming he even is aware it happened.  The second Biden benefit is that Tehran purportedly has agreed to release four hostages:  Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer who were convicted of “collaboration with a hostile government”, and two British Citizens, environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, and businessman Emad Shargi.

At its core, this new arrangement is little more than a ransom payment designed to bolster President Biden’s reelection prospects.  He will say that he is the President who successfully gained the release of American hostages from Russian and Iran.  However, as night follows day, soon after these four hostages are released, four more western hostages will be kidnapped and held for ransom as part of a future deal.  Just ask Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich whether the release of Britney Griner made the world safer for foreign nationals in Russia.

Supporters of the new arrangement will argue that not even Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is objecting to the deal.  Therefore, it must be a good deal.  That is just more delusional thinking.

When asked about the new deal, Netanyahu responded: “What’s on the agenda at the moment between Washington and Tehran is not a nuclear deal, it’s a mini-deal…  We will be able to handle it.”  That is far from a ringing endorsement.  From Bibi’s perspective, this arrangement, unlike the JCPOA, does not sanction a legal path to a nuclear weapon for Iran.  More importantly, there is nothing in the deal that impedes Israel’s ability to defend itself as it sees fit. As the Israeli Prime Minister said: “More than 90 percent of our security issues stem from Iran and its [proxies]… Our position is clear: Israel will not be bound by any deal with Iran and will continue to defend itself.”

The JCPOA created an existential threat for Israel because it no only gave Iran a nuclear weapon, but it hamstrung Israel’s ability to act unilaterally.  In contrast, while this arrangement does nothing to prevent Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon, at least it does not sanction it nor does it prevent Israel from acting on its own or in concert with others.   Needless to say, the billions of dollars that will go to Iran’s military and terrorist network from sanctions relief is problematic, but Bibi made the political calculation that it is not worth alienating the American Administration.

The best that can be said about this really bad deal is that it could have been worse.  In this context, “shorter and weaker” is better than “longer and stronger.”  Of course, a strong coordinated military attack by the United States with Israel, NATO allies, and our Sunni Arab partners on Iran’s nuclear sites would be better.  If the goal is to prevent a nuclear Iran, we must be prepared to do what is necessary to achieve that goal.