As the Biden administration resuscitates President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, version 2.0 is looking even worse than the first one. Already one of the worst ideas in the recent history of geopolitics, the “new” agreement would do nothing to stop Iranian nuclearization, while undermining American interests.
To even negotiate with Iran is wildly naive at best and troublingly un-American at worst. Just days ago, Iranian terrorists threatened to kill American citizens on U.S. soil, while the Iranian government openly claimed creditfor a missile attack near the American consulate in Iraq. Ambassador Matthew Tueller, America’s top diplomat in Iraq, claimed the Iranian regime “must be held accountable for this flagrant violation.”
If only accountability mattered to his boss, President Biden, in ongoing negotiations with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. For decades, the United States has adopted the policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorists, yet U.S. officials are effectively condoning it now. Tehran has built a network of more than one dozen militia proxies, destabilizing Iraq, Lebanon, and other nearby countries. According to the State Department, Iran funds the designated terrorist group Hezbollah to the tune of $700 million per year.
Back in 1995, President Clinton – yes, a Democrat – became the first president to sanction Iran’s proxies, targeting Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. All three remain funded by the Iranian regime, a fact of life that the Clinton administration acknowledged nearly three decades ago.
How times change. Fast forward to now, and President Biden may remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps from the Foreign Terrorist Organization watchlist altogether. Our allies in the Middle East, such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates, are right to be concerned. Brought together by President Trump into an unprecedented alliance, the two nations now anticipate requiring U.S. security assurances because of a potential Iran deal.
Whereas his predecessor brought Israelis and Arabs together in peace, President Biden is trying a different tack: Turn your back for the sake of the Obama legacy.
To what end? Political solidarity? Loyalty to your former boss?
The Biden administration claims the Iran deal will stop the country’s development of a nuclear bomb, but it contains sunset provisions that allow nuclearization to continue after a given period of time. In the meantime, U.S. sanctions relief would only embolden the Iranian regime to expand funding of terrorist proxy groups and tighten its group on the region (just ask Israel and the UAE). The stronger the Iranian economy, the more capable it is of subsidizing terrorism that costs countless lives.
For the sake of discussion, let’s take a leap of faith and assume the Iran deal limits nuclearization in the short run – which is highly debatable, due to lack of enforcement and the question mark of Iranian compliance. Even so, the deal would not address Iran’s ballistic missile program or its proxy warfare across the Middle East. Worse yet, once the sunset provisions expire, the United States would have granted sanctions relief for virtually nothing.
Now, let’s put the specifics aside. Support for or opposition to the Iran nuclear deal really comes down to two vital questions: trust, and the parties at play.
The first: Can Americans trust the Biden administration to negotiate a pro-American deal after the Afghanistan debacle and the Ukraine crisis? After five decades in Washington, D.C., what exactly has President Biden done to reassure us? Judging by Afghanistan and Ukraine, the answer is no.
The second: Can Americans trust the Iranian regime to negotiate in good faith? That’s an even harder no.
How can we trust a quasi-terrorist regime to respect American interests mere days after they targeted American troops in Iraq? The same regime that dropped bombs near the American consulate in Iraq and forced Americans into hiding is now back at the table, and we’re supposed to pretend like it never happened?
Color me skeptical, but my head isn’t stuck in the sand. After over a year of failure, the Biden administration has forsaken its right to a benefit of the doubt, and the Iranian regime never deserved that benefit in the first place.
The Iran nuclear deal is a bad deal for America. Sealing it would be a catastrophe of epic proportions.