Whatever happened to the Iran Deal? You know, the historic agreement that the Obama administration negotiated back in 2015, despite Republicans, some fellow Democrats, and Israel trying to torpedo it? The Trump administration violated it, but Biden repeatedly said he wanted to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) if he ended up becoming president.
Well, now he’s president and suddenly things aren’t so clear. David Klion has a great piece at Jewish Currents on growing progressive anxiety over this issue. “Biden’s team has dawdled, insisting that Tehran take the first steps toward complying with the agreement even though the US withdrew when Iran was cooperating,” writes Klion. “In the meantime, the administration has created new obstacles to diplomacy.”
Klion cites the February 26th Syria strike as one of those obstacles. “The Syria strikes were disheartening, to say the least,” Win Without War’s Erica Fein told him. “Syria is not a place that should be used to send messages back and forth between Iranian-backed proxies and the United States. You can’t bomb your way to peace.”
During a four-hour hearing with the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week, Secretary of State Tony Blinken assured its members that Biden wouldn’t be making any concessions, or lifting sanctions, until Iran reverts back to the rules of the original deal. “Iranians have, unfortunately, moved further and further away from their own compliance,” said Blinken at one point.
Let’s step back for a moment. Here’s Iran, which has been the target of U.S. aggression for decades. I don’t have to run through the public record for you. The C.I.A. overthrew their government via a coup in 1953, gave Iraq chemical weapons that were used against them, shot down a civilian Iranian airliner with 66 children on it, among a variety of additional horrors. U.S politicians regularly threaten to pulverize the country with a military strike. The former president did so over Twitter and a former presidential candidate (and late hero of the “Never Trump Republican” clique) even sang a song about doing so. This isn’t even to mention anything that Israel has done to the country through the years, with full assistance from the United States. You know the history.
In 2015, Iran agreed to cut its low-enriched uranium stockpile by 98% in exchange for sanction relief. The United States violated the deal, ramped up sanctions amid a global pandemic, and now Biden is bombing countries in an effort to send the country a message.
“On Iran, negotiation is always best from a position of strength,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) told Blinken during the hearing. “I don’t trust the Ayatollah, I don’t know how you can possibly negotiate with the Ayatollah.”
I don’t know how, indeed.
Dems also try to sink the deal
Once again, a number of Democrats are seemingly working to impede the deal. Back in December, 150 House Democrats sent a letter to Biden calling on him to rejoin the deal without conditions. A new letter comes in direct response to that suggestion.
The new letter (which was signed by 70 Republican and 70 Democratic House members) outlines a number of conditions that Iran should abide by before Biden negotiates. “Despite everything you see, there is bipartisanship going on in DC, even over something as contentious as the Iran deal,” said Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL). “We’re thrilled to have been able to come together on a number of these points… encouraging the administration to encompass all of Iran’s malign behavior.”
Waltz also praised Democrats for taking a more hawkish stand. “The important thing from this letter is that we’re seeing 70 Democrats on the record to the administration saying that we need to have all of these pieces on the table for a future deal,” he explained. “We did not want to leave the only thing out there from Congress — and many Democrats did not want to leave as the only thing out there from the House — the letter in December that just said blindly get back into the JCPOA.”
Now there’s a House resolution (being led primarily by Democrats) to condemn Iranian’s nuclear program. The resolution was introduced by Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA). “Iran is a state-sponsor of terrorism and poses an existential threat to our national security and Israel, America’s strongest ally in the region,” she said in a statement. “Iran cannot be allowed to continue to progress towards a nuclear weapon and the United States must unequivocally condemn their provocations.”
Does the Biden administration agree with this stuff or do they actually hope to reenter the Iran Deal? This remains an open question.
America has sent a strong signal to the world, despite our signature on an international deal, we can still give you harsh sanctions, and punish you, even if you have kept to your side of the deal. If Biden does not put things right, it will be always be forever part of our ugly history, and we will have a very bad reputation that we do not keep our word. No country will want to trust us.
The only sane voice I hear is from Ben Rhodes, and he is not in the Biden administration.
For the record:
https://news.antiwar.com/2019/06/24/poll-shows-strong-majority-of-americans-oppose-attacking-iran/
“Poll Shows Strong Majority of Americans Oppose Attacking Iran”
“58% of voters want a non-military approach to Iran,” by Jason Ditz June 24, 2019, ANTIWAR.COM
“While officials have denied that there was any political component to the US not attacking Iran on Thursday, a newly released poll from Hill-Harris X, taken over the weekend, shows that a strong majority of American voters oppose such an attack.
“The poll showed 58 percent favored a non-military approach, with 48 percent calling for diplomacy and nine percent saying the US should take no action at all. By contrast, only 5 percent supported a war, and another 19 percent wanted ‘limited’ attacks.
“A majority remained against an attack in all parties, and all age groups, with 67% of Democrats calling for non-military options, 54 percent of independents, and a slight majority of Republicans.
“With overwhelmingly more people in every category imaginable opposed to the idea of a war with Iran, the perennial hawks who have been trying to foment an Iran war for generations clearly still have an uphill battle, and a public that still isn’t buying their push.”
This is one of those times I desperately wish I was wrong, but it looks like I called this from the beginning of the Biden presidency. I said at the time that I believed Biden would make a weak and insincere attempt to resuscitate the Iran Deal, to mollify the increasingly powerful progressive wing of the Democratic Party (Note: it won’t work) but, in the end, would throw up his hands and say, “I tried, but it’s Iran’s fault that we couldn’t get this done”, to appease Bibi and his Zionist agents in Congress.
I still hope to be proven wrong, but it doesn’t seem likely at this point.
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https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-netanyahu-severely-damaged-jordan-israel-ties-gantz-says-after-uae-snafu-1.9611801
“Netanyahu Severely Damaged Jordan-Israel Ties, Gantz Says After UAE Snafu
“Gantz’s remarks come hours after Netanyahu canceled his historic visit to the United Arab Emirates, claiming there were difficulties with approving the flight path with Jordan
By Judy Maltz and Jack Khoury. Haaretz, March 11, 2021
“Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Thursday that the conduct of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent years has severely harmed Israel’s relations with Jordan, hours after the prime minister canceled his historic visit to the United Arab Emirates, claiming there were difficulties with approving the flight path with Jordan.
“‘Jordan is a strategic partner of Israel,’ Gantz tweeted. ‘Our defense and diplomatic ties are a foundation stone in our national security outlook.’
‘I want to emphasize that Israel is committed to the agreements between us and the Jordanians, and have great respect for the Jordanian government and King Abdullah. Unfortunately, Netanyahu has seriously damaged relations with Jordan with his behavior in recent years.’
“Gantz added that this led ‘to a significant loss of security, diplomatic and financial assets for Israel. I personally, along with the entire defense establishment, will continue to work to strengthen ties with Jordan in every aspect, and establishing ties with every country in the region, with an emphasis on Jordan and Egypt, with whom we have longstanding, stable peace agreements.’
“This marks the fourth time Netanyahu’s planned visit to the UAE, which would have been the first since the Gulf state established diplomatic ties with Israel, was canceled. (cont’d)
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“According to a statement issued by Netanyahu’s office, he and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan agreed to reschedule. A hold-up in overflight permission from Amman for Netanyahu’s plane ‘apparently’ stemmed from the cancellation of a visit by Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Wednesday over a dispute regarding security arrangements at the site, the statement said.
“Permission eventually came through but too late for Netanyahu’s itinerary, which included meeting his visiting Hungarian and Czech counterparts later on Thursday, it said. Jordanian officials were not immediately available for comment on the overflight issue. But Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi confirmed the crown prince’s cancelled Al-Aqsa visit, which would have been the first there by Jordan’s future king.
“State TV quoted Safadi as saying Israeli authorities had tried to change a program agreed with Amman in a manner that it deemed harmful to Palestinian and Muslim rights of worship. ‘The crown prince did not want to allow Israel to impose restrictions on Muslims,’ Safadi was quoted as saying.
“‘After understandings had already been reached on security for the crown prince’s delegation, we were surprised by Israel’s wish to make new security arrangements, which would have harmed Jerusalem residents’ ability to pray at Al-Aqsa on the night of the visit,’ he said.”
Reuters contributed to this article.