While the left is myopically focused on January 6, 2021, there are critical events that are not being covered in the news media. One of the more significant is the status of the “Iran negotiations.”
Among Biden’s campaign promises was to have the United States re-enter the old Iran Nuclear agreement. That was the deal he and President Obama struck with the terrorist leaders of that Persian nation. What America got was a difficult to verify promise from the radical Muslim leadership would not advance a nuclear weapon program for at least 15 years. Almost immediately, Iran started chipping away at compliance.
In return, sanctions that were crippling the Iranian economy were lifted and almost one-half of a billion dollars in cash was sent to Tehran in an airplane. That money could easily be used to continue to subsidize the terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas – and probably was. Iran has been the Middle East’s primary state sponsor of international terrorism.
Biden’s promise to re-enter the agreement was not only a boneheaded plan – appealing only to the more extreme isolationist elements on the left – and was not a promise Biden could keep even at the time he made it. The time for agreement with Iran was over. Of course, that became obvious once Biden tried to implement his campaign commitment.
One of the reasons that the Biden plan was dead on arrival in Tehran is that Iran had already been advancing their nuclear capabilities even as the old agreement was theoretically in place between Iran and the other signatories to the agreement – including France, Britain, and Russia.
Even before the United States withdrew, there was growing evidence that Iran was moving in the direction of developing weapons-grade nuclear material – and were pursuing development of long-range missiles, which apparently were not included … barred … in the Agreement. The latter was borne out recently when Iran test fired a long-range missile – a weapon that was obviously in development for years.
In a desperate attempt to get Iran to the negotiating table, Biden has actually lifted some of the sanctions on Iran. That’s right. While the ayatollahs in Tehran are thumbing their noses at Biden – moving forward on weapons-grade uranium and delivery systems – he is relaxing sanctions unilaterally. Sanctions have not proven to be the most effective way to deter actions on aggressive nations but lifting them removes even their limited value.
Biden is doing that even as the White House (Biden) has conceded that Iran has made “significant advances” in developing nuclear weaponry. As Iran makes advances, Biden retreats.
As was the case in Afghanistan – and is now the case in Ukraine – the Biden foreign policy is to concede and then face ultimate defeat. Under Biden the United States is not only falling from the pinnacle of world leadership, but the nation is also becoming an insignificant player – a nation that our allies can no longer rely upon and our adversaries need no longer fear.
So, there ‘tis.