Not only is the Biden Administration disregarding the escalating Iranian-Russian military and nuclear cooperation, the Administration actually seems to be facilitating these two tyrannies’ becoming more empowered and emboldened.
Recently, the Biden Administration renewed a series of waivers of sanctions that will allow Iranian and Russian leaders to cooperate more closely with each other to advance the Iran’s nuclear program at various enrichment sites. According to the Washington Free Beacon:
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken authorized the waivers on Jan. 31, but Congress was not notified of the decision until late on Feb. 3, after the Free Beacon began making inquiries about the exemptions. Senior congressional sources said the Biden administration is trying to sweep the sanctions waivers under the rug amid renewed concerns about Iran and Russia’s military alliance.”
The US Congress urgently needs to pass legislation introduced by the Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that will “prohibit the Biden administration from waiving Congressional sanctions that prohibit cooperation on Iran’s nuclear program.”
“These waivers were originally issued pursuant to the catastrophic Obama-Biden nuclear deal with Iran, formally named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The Biden administration issued these waivers in February and renewed them in August.”
The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn), Mike Braun (R-Ind), Bill Cassidy (R-La), Tom Cotton (R-Ark), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Steve Daines (R-Mont), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn), John Hoeven (R-ND), Marco Rubio (R-Fla) and Rick Scott (R-Fla).
It is stunning that the Biden Administration is offering Iran’s mullahs sanction waivers for their nuclear program while the Iranian regime is openly getting closer to obtaining nuclear weapons. As Cruz pointed out:
“There is absolutely no reason to continue issuing these waivers, which allow Iran and Russia to cooperate on building up Iran’s nuclear program. These waivers were nevertheless renewed in August, because the Biden administration remains obsessed with reentering a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime. Now the administration says it is committed to countering cooperation between Iran and Russia. They should embrace this legislation.”
Additionally, the Biden Administration has continued to send a message to Russia and the Islamist mullahs of Iran that the US is still in favor of reviving the nuclear deal in which Russia, Iran’s staunch ally, plays the dominant role. Biden’s nuclear deal will reportedly allow Moscow to cash in on a $10 billion contract to expand Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
Blinken previously made it clear to US lawmakers that the Biden Administration will not stand in the way of Russia cashing in on the $10 billion contract, as well as Russia-Iran nuclear cooperation. State Department spokesman Ned Price had previously reiterated the Biden administration’s stance, saying:
“We, of course, would not sanction Russian participation in nuclear projects that are part of resuming full implementation of the JCPOA”.
Worse, the Biden administration’s nuclear deal has been trusting Russia to conduct the negotiations on behalf of the US; to be the sole country to oversee compliance with the nuclear deal, and to keep Iran’s highly enriched uranium — able to return it to Iran at the mullahs’ request.
As Gabriel Noronha, who served as Special Advisor for Iran in the U.S. State Department from 2019-2020 pointed out, the Biden administration “cannot honestly claim to be supporting Ukraine if they are going to keep giving a green light to support the Russian-Iranian alliance at the very same time.”
“Renewing these waivers would provide Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear company, a get-out-of-sanctions pass to build two new nuclear reactors in Iran—a contract worth $10 billion—while they have been helping take over Ukraine’s two largest nuclear power plants. If Biden is serious about moving on from the failed [nuclear deal] and actually pushing back against Iran’s terror plots and nuclear extortion, the administration needs to act like it and put real pressure on Iran for once. The same goes for punishing Russia.”
Biden has already been called “the Manchurian President” (here, here, and here). After seeing the Biden Administration’s capitulations to America’s enemies over the past two years (for instance here, here , here and here), it is important to ask: Has the Biden family effectively been paid (here, here and here) to hand over America to Russia, China and Iran?
(Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at [email protected])
{Reposted from Gatestone Institute}
