Iran sponsors Hamas, Hezbollah, the Huthis, and all those militias that have been attacking US troops in the Middle East.
Its slogan is “Death to America,” and its leaders go to great lengths to turn this aspiration into concrete reality.
This reality isn’t refuted or even challenged by the Biden Administration. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, our military and intelligence officials, and even President Biden have pointed the finger at Iran for instigating all the death and chaos in the region.
None of this matters, though, when it comes to handing over cash to the Iranian regime.
BREAKING: Biden Admin Poised To Grant Iran Billions in Sanctions Relief, Lawmakers Warn — Key sanctions waiver is up for renewal, unlocking upwards of $10 billion for Tehran as it foments terror across MidEast https://t.co/Xia8TJflZB
— Adam Kredo (@Kredo0) March 12, 2024
The Biden administration is poised to issue a fresh sanctions waiver for Iran that will grant the country access to upward of $10 billion in frozen assets, providing Tehran with “a financial lifeline” as it foments terrorism across the Middle East, according to a group of GOP lawmakers.
In November, shortly after Hamas’s attack on Israel, the State Department signed off on a sanctions waiver that permits Iraq to transfer multibillion-dollar electricity payments to Iran. The waiver, which grants Tehran access to around $10 billion in frozen funds, is set to expire this month unless the Biden administration renews it.
The Left’s obsession with propping up Iran’s theocratic regime began during the Obama Administration, which literally shipped pallets of cash to the Islamic Republic in exchange for…what, exactly? Supposedly a deal to stop nuclear weapons development. This development never really stopped, of course.
What did stop during the Trump Administration is the coddling of Iran, and the brief period of time when Trump was president was the acme of American influence in the Middle East. Trump brought together a coalition of the Sunni Muslim states, convinced them to make peace, and created an Arab/Israeli axis of opposition to Iran. It was by any measure a masterstroke of diplomacy.
And then Biden blew it all up, and you see the results. Chaos and war.
Biden is doubling down on this strategy, which can be summarized as “reward your enemies and punish your friends.” As Biden has begun a campaign to replace Bibi Netanyahu in Israel he is opening the money spigots to the regime most responsible for the Israel-Hamas war.
The sanctions waiver decision comes as Iran and its regional terror proxies—which include Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen—foment chaos across the Middle East, including a series of missile attacks that killed 3 American military members and wounded more than 40. Critics of the sanctions waiver say it will enable Iran to continue funding its terrorist allies amid the worst spate of violence in the Middle East in years.
“Given the Biden Administration’s posture on the last waiver we presume that the Biden Administration will renew the waiver again to continue to allow for the transfer of funds from Iraq to Oman,” four Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Bill Huizenga (Mich.), wrote in the letter. “By waiving the application of sanctions, the Administration is maintaining a financial lifeline for the Iranian regime, even as it continues to support terrorist organizations around the world.”
Biden insists that the money being released to Iran can only be spent for “humanitarian” reasons, which is one of the most absurd claims that keeps getting trotted out. Putting $10 billion into Iran’s coffers for any purpose frees up $10 billion for nefarious purposes. It doesn’t matter which exact dollar is spent on terrorism because dollars are fungible.
Biden and Obama before him have been trying to turn Iran into an ally in the Persian Gulf region, on the assumption that a friendly Iran is far more in our interests than an unfriendly Iran.
That is true enough, except the chances of a friendly Iran, given the current regime, are precisely zero. Jimmy Carter had a friendly Iran and stabbed it in the back, so that ship has sailed. Bribing the current Iranian regime is not going to work. It was never going to work.
Either the theory upon which the administration’s foreign policy is based is fatally flawed or the goals they claim to want are not the goals they are actually pursuing. If a more stable and peaceful Middle East is the goal, they have proven utterly incapable of doing anything to achieve it.
If the goal is chaos, they have been masterful.
As cynical as I am, I am not (yet) cynical enough to believe that Biden actually wants to bring about a new holocaust in the Middle East. But, as with Jimmy Carter’s ineptitude in 1979, Biden has chosen to back the wrong side and is unwilling to face the fact that Iran means it when it says “Death to America.”
The result is death for Americans, and for countless others.