While the Iranian regime has become more belligerent, the European Union and the Biden administration are still attempting to restore the nuclear deal that will lift economic sanctions on Iran, empower and embolden the regime, enhance its global legitimacy and pave the way for what the US State Department has called the "world's worst sponsor of state terrorism" to legally become a nuclear-armed state.
The Biden administration claimed that the nuclear deal was "off the table," but regrettably this statement appears merely an attempt by the administration to keep Congress and the public in the dark, to let their guard down, about the revival of the nuclear deal with Iran. A few days after President Joe Biden claimed that the nuclear deal was dead, Robert Malley, the U.S. special envoy to Iran, revealed in interview with RFE/RL's Radio Farda on December 22 that the nuclear deal is in fact not dead.
On December 20, 2022, the European Union's head of foreign policy, Josep Borrell, met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian by the Dead Sea in Jordan, and stressed that the revival of the nuclear deal is an important step. According to Mehr News, Borrell said:
"I still believe that when it comes to nuclear non-proliferation, there is no alternative to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Those who think otherwise simply fool themselves."
Borrell added that he would "continue working towards restoring the JCPOA based on the results of the Vienna negotiations... I also stressed that bringing the JCPOA back to life does not happen in a strategic vacuum. It is part, a key part, of a broader picture."
On January 3, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:
"Unfortunately, contrary to the popular opinion that this dangerous nuclear agreement has been scrapped, despite the recent events in Iran, I think that this possibility has not yet been definitively removed from the [global] agenda... "Therefore, we will do everything to prevent the revival of this bad agreement that will lead to a nuclear Iran with international sponsorship... We will act powerfully and openly on the international front against the revival of the [Iranian] nuclear agreement."
The Obama-Biden administration had also kept the US Congress, the American people and US allies in the Middle East in the dark about what it was negotiating with the ruling mullahs of Iran. When Biden was vice president, the Obama administration made multiple secret deals with Iran's mullahs. One of these secret deals consisted of permitting the Iranian regime to have access to US dollars by sidestepping sanctions.
"The Obama administration misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran," said Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), who chaired the Senate panel conducting the investigation at the time.
In addition, the Obama-Biden administration secretly agreed to lift sanctions on several Iranian banks, including Bank Sepah and Sepah International. Another major concession was that the deal actually did pave the way for Iran legally to become a full-blown nuclear state. The JCPOA's sunset clauses, which enshrined that commitment, had set a firm expiration date for restricting Iran's nuclear program, after which the country would be free to have, legitimately, as many nuclear weapons as they like.
The Biden administration has reportedly already made a major concession to allow non-US persons to do business with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department. According to a leaked draft agreement:
"Non-U.S. persons doing business with Iranian persons that are not on the [U.S. sanctions list] will not be exposed to sanctions merely as a result of those Iranian persons engaging in separate transactions involving Iranian persons on the [U.S. sanctions list] (including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its officials, or its subsidiaries or affiliates)."
That is apparently why a group of 50 US House Representatives, mostly Democrats, urged the Biden administration to release the text of the nuclear deal:
"We are writing to respectfully request that your Administration provide Congress with the full text of any proposal to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), including any side agreements, and consult with Congress prior to reentering that agreement."
As Middle East Scholar Lee Smith notes:
"The Biden administration's determination to reenter the Iran deal is a macabre scam virtually handing off a bomb to a terror state....
"America's Middle East allies are in fact only the most visible targets of the Iran deal: As an intervention in American domestic politics, the JCPOA was designed as an instrument to break pro-Israel Democrats, who represent what Obama saw as the most powerful of the internal constituencies that might oppose his reordering of the Democratic Party. That is, the real realignment isn't in the Middle East, which America is leaving anyway, but inside Obama's own party."
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 Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
Eliot Schickler