An overwhelming majority of American people reportedly do not trust President Joe Biden on Iran's nuclear deal. After the Biden administration recently issued sanctions waivers allowing Iran and Russia to build nuclear infrastructure, Senator Ted Cruz pointed out, correctly, that "the Biden administration remains obsessed with reentering a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime."
According to the Washington Examiner:
"America does not trust President Joe Biden's effort to negotiate a secret new Iran nuclear deal, fears it more than Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and would support a military strike on the enemy nation's facilities, according to an expansive new survey provided to Secrets.
"On the issue of having confidence in Biden's talks, including with Russian President Vladimir Putin, 52% said they don't "trust" the administration to cut a deal that will prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Just 32% do.
"And in a timely question in the McLaughlin & Associates survey, 63% believe that providing Iran a path to building the weapons is a bigger threat to the United States than Russia's invasion of Ukraine (at 21%)."
One reason behind this mistrust is likely related to the notion that the Biden Administration has been caught so often misleading the Congress and the American public (such as here, here, here, here and here ). For example, a few days after Biden claimed that the nuclear deal was dead, Robert Malley, the U.S. special envoy to Iran, on December 22, revealed in interview with RFE/RL's Radio Farda that the nuclear deal is in fact not dead. The Telegraph reported on February 22, 2023:
"Joe Biden's diplomats are pressing the UK Government not to formally declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group, despite the Home Office backing the move...
"The US State Department has argued that the UK can play a key role as interlocutors with Tehran which would be undercut by the designation, according to Whitehall insiders."
One may wonder whether the administration is attempting to keep the Congress and the public in the dark, so that they let their guard down about the revival of the nuclear deal with Iran and about what kinds of concessions are being granted to the ruling mullahs?
The second issue is more likely linked to a Biden Administration concession, reportedly allowing non-US persons to do business with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State. 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, had earlier urged the Biden administration to release the text of any new 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. We are deeply concerned about multiple provisions that reportedly may be contained in the final language of any agreement with the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism."
The major problem is that any nuclear deal would most likely include the previous sunset clauses, which set a firm expiration date for restricting Iran's nuclear program, after which the country's leaders would be free to spin centrifuges and enrich uranium at any level they wished. Any potential new deal would most likely make Iran's military sites exempt from inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Resurrecting the nuclear deal would also assist the Iranian regime in rejoining the global financial system and gaining more legitimacy – as well as billions of dollars flowing into the treasury of the regime and its militia groups. As Middle East Scholar Lee Smith noted: "The Biden administration's determination to reenter the Iran deal is a macabre scam virtually handing off a bomb to a terror state. "
Finally, with all the inconsistencies, lies and concessions, it is no wonder why majority of Americans do not trust Biden on Iran. The US Congress and the American public have the right to be informed about this regime that has been killing Americans and taking hostages for almost four decades, not to mention how brutally it treats its own people, or uses its proxies in the Middle East to try to obliterate its perceived enemies. Is the Biden Administration actually about to let a regime such as this acquire nuclear weapons?
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
Hannah Gelman Givon