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Former Special Advisor for the Secretary of State’s Iran Action Group Gabriel Noronha.

Former Special Advisor to the Secretary of State’s Iran Action Group Gabriel Noronha tweeted Wednesday afternoon: “My former career State Dept., NSC, and EU colleagues are so concerned with the concessions being made by Rob Malley in Vienna that they’ve allowed me to publish some details of the coming deal in the hopes that Congress will act to stop the capitulation.”

Robert Malley, the Obama administration’s negotiator of the historic Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal with Iran who is also an expert on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, is President Joe Biden’s pick to be his special envoy for Iran.

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Malley, whose Jewish mom worked for the UN delegation of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN), and whose father was an Egyptian-born Jewish journalist and communist sympathizer, has not strayed much from his family roots. The family moved to France in 1969 and only returned to America after President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing expelled Robert’s dad because of his hostile punditry against the West in general and Israel in particular.

And so, the Biden administration has succeeded in erasing President Trump from an entire section of US foreign policy, bringing the parties involved, including, most prominently, Israel, to the nightmarish summer of 2015, when the Obama White House elbowed its ways with false promises and outright lies into getting a majority in Congress to support JCPOA.

Robert Malley and President Joe Biden / International Peace Institute; The White House / via Wikimedia

Now, if you expected Gabriel Noronha to be some dyed in the wool Trump supporter, you couldn’t be more wrong: on January 7, 2021, the Trump administration fired Noronha for tweeting that President Donald Trump was unfit for office and was to blame for the mob attack on the US Capitol.

“President Trump fomented an insurrectionist mob that attacked the Capitol today. He continues to take every opportunity to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power,” wrote Noronha, who used to be a staffer on Capitol Hill before moving up to advisor on Iran to the Secretary of State. “These actions threaten our democracy and our Republic. Trump is entirely unfit to remain in office, and needs to go.”

So, not a huge fan of the former president.

Noronha is now channeling the fears and trepidations of the professional staff across the board in the US and Europe that Biden’s chief negotiator Malley is fomenting disaster over in Vienna.

“What’s happening in Vienna is a total disaster,” the official warned Noronha, suggesting “the entire negotiations have been filtered and ‘essentially run’ by Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov. The concessions and other misguided policies have led three members of the US negotiating team to leave.”

“This is a long and technical thread, but here’s what you should know: the deal being negotiated in Vienna is dangerous to our national security, it is illegal, it is illegitimate, and it in no way serves US interests in either the short or long term,” the former Iran hand continues.

“Here’s why: led by Rob Malley, the US has promised to lift sanctions on some of the regime’s worst terrorists and torturers, leading officials in the regime’s WMD infrastructure, and is currently trying to lift sanctions on the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – DI) itself. Let’s dive in.

“First, Biden’s team is preparing to rescind the Supreme Leaders’ Office Executive Order (E.O. 13876) as soon as this coming Monday, and lift sanctions on nearly every one of the 112 people/entities sanctioned under it, even if they’re sanctioned under other legal authorities.

“We sanctioned some of the worst people you can possibly imagine under this authority, like Mohsen Rezaei, who was involved in the 1994 AMIA bombing that killed 85 people in Argentina. He’ll be able to live free of sanctions next week if Malley proceeds.

“Also under this action, the US will lift sanctions on IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, who led IRGC forces in Lebanon and Syria when Hezbollah bombed the Marine compound in Beirut and killed 241 US servicemembers in 1983.

“Who else? Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Khamenei, who was charged in Argentina for homicide for the 1994 AMIA bombing and as one of the “ideological masterminds” behind the attack. He also helped prop up Assad’s brutality in Syria.

“This would also lift sanctions on Khamenei’s personal slush funds known as ‘bonyads,’ including Astan Quds Razavi and Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, which confiscated houses and billions from political dissidents and religious minorities to enrich Khamenei and his goons.

“Sanctions also to be lifted on Bonyad Mostazafan, a massive conglomerate that systematically confiscated property from Jews and Bahai’s after 1979. It is enmeshed with the IRGC and is a corruption network used to enrich top Iranian terrorists.

“It’s important to note that the Supreme Leaders Office EO was not at all related to Iran’s nuclear program, and the removal of these sanctions under a so-called nuclear deal is a ridiculous farce. The State Department’s lawyers know better but were forced into this by Malley.

“Our lawyers were clear when we released this EO: it was a response to actions by Iran & its proxies to destabilize the Middle East, promote international terrorism, advance Iran’s ballistic missile program, & Iran’s attack against US military assets + civilian vehicles.

“There’s much more: sanctions will be lifted on huge swaths of the regime’s economic and financial arms (close to 40 major entities) that support the Iranian terror, repression, and WMD infrastructure and were sanctioned under those legal authorities.

“For example, they are lifting sanctions on economic arms of the Mehr Eqtesad network and Bonyad Taavon Basij which directly funds the Basij Resistance Force that recruits and trains child soldiers forced into combat. You can read about them here:

“The US is not lifting sanctions on the Basij (responsible for killing thousands of Iranian protesters) itself, because the Iranians didn’t care – they just wanted sanctions on the funding mechanisms lifted because that’s what actually matters. Malley obliged.

“These sanctions are also not related to Iran’s nuclear program, but we’re about to lift sanctions on them anyways. These are not ‘inconsistent with the JCPOA’ as Blinken and Malley claim – they targeted the institutions that kill thousands of innocent Iranians and Arabs.

“More: Every individual and entity that was de-sanctioned under the JCPOA’s Annex II Attachment 3 will have all sanctions stripped again, EVEN THOUGH close to 100 of them were later sanctioned for terrorism, human rights violations, and participation in Iran’s WMD activities.

“Take Ghavamin Bank for example. It was sanctioned under human rights authorities in November 2018 for involvement in supporting the Iranian Law Enforcement Forces that tortured and drowned Afghans. That won’t matter anymore – they’ll be free from sanctions.

“Same for Sepah Bank, sanctioned in 2007 as “the financial linchpin of Iran’s missile procurement network.” That first sanction was lifted by the JCPOA, but Sepah was later sanctioned for their support of the Iranian Ministry of Defense. Now, both sanctions would be lifted.

“The JCPOA lifted sanctions on the Attachment 3 list under the guise that they were nuclear-related sanctions. But now, Malley and co. are effectively trying to codify their permanent exemption from sanctions even if they are complicit in gross violations of human rights.

“This is akin to criminal prosecution. The Attachment 3 lists were all previously indicted for nuclear ‘crimes.’ But a bunch of them later committed human rights and terrorism ‘crimes’ and were sanctioned accordingly. But now Malley is giving them a full-on pardon.

“Sanctions will also be lifted on the Central Bank of Iran and the National Development Fund, which were sanctioned under counterterrorism authorities for providing billions of dollars to the IRGC, the Qods Force, and Hizballah. These organizations STILL fund terrorism.

“The CBI (Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran – DI) and NDF (National Development Fund of Iran – DI) were sanctioned after Iran brazenly attacked Saudi Arabia in September 2019 in the attacks on Saudi Aramco in an act of war. Again, these sanctions are not related to Iran’s nuclear program – they are about terrorism. More here:

“Also to be lifted: sanctions on the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) that fund the Qods Force, responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of Syrians and for the death of at least 603 Americans in Iraq from 2003-2011.

“NIOC and NITC were sanctioned under counterterrorism authorities approved by interagency career lawyers, including from DOJ and Treasury. Why? Because they were involved in the funding of terrorism. They never stopped that activity, but sanctions are still getting lifted.

“The State Dept. has no legal basis to rescind the sanctions on the Central Bank, NDF, NIOC, or NITC (National Iranian Tanker Company – DI) as they still continue to support terrorism. To remove those sanctions, you typically have to prove they aren’t supporting terror. They can’t. In other words, this is all illegal

“Speaking of lawyers, State’s lawyers are said to be working on ‘very creative’ ways to try and bypass Congress’ right to review (or even see the deal) under INARA. The political appointees working this deal are said to strongly disdain Congress and view them as a nuisance.

“Perhaps most troubling is Malley’s attempt to remove sanctions on the IRGC. Malley was initially rebuffed by the interagency after he tried to get them to let him offer the removal of IRGC sanctions to the Iranians. That hasn’t stopped him.

“Malley has proposed to the Iranians that the U.S. will remove the IRGC from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list & sanctions if the Iranians simply promise to talk to the United States in new negotiations about their “regional activity” (aka terrorism).

“This is one of the last issues still on the table in Vienna. The Iranians apparently have not accepted Malley’s offer, because they want an unconditional removal of the IRGC’s FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organizations – DI) designation. But even if the Iranians caved, we’d still be removing the IRGC sanctions!

“Over the past four decades, the IRGC has plotted and carried out terrorist attacks in 35 countries, and they continue to do so today. As Pompeo disclosed last year, they are currently providing a safe haven and logistical support for Al-Qaeda in Iran.

“For all these concessions, we haven’t gotten anything at all from the Iranians. The JCPOA’s sunsets have not been extended at all. Some restrictions, like the UN arms embargo, have already expired. All the meaningful restrictions will expire in the next 9 years.

“Iran won’t make any concessions on its ballistic missile activity, its terrorist activity, and support for proxy groups, or taking further hostages from the United States and other countries. But it will get money anyways – lots and lots of money.

“Iran is set to get a massive windfall in access to cash: the latest estimate is $90 billion in foreign exchange reserves, and then $50-55 billion in extra revenue each year from higher oil/petrochemical exports, with no restrictions on where it’ll be spent.”

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David writes news at JewishPress.com.