The Biden administration is very enthusiastic about lifting stringent sanctions imposed on Iran by former President Donald Trump. Those sanctions have severely battered the Iranian economy. Iran would have fallen in line all by itself – without a nuclear deal, had the Biden administration allowed the sanctions to continue. Just for how long could Iran have managed to survive while having its economy in the deep freeze? That’s right. Not long. Yet, Joe Biden and his aides are trying to woo Iran and bring it back to the 2015 nuclear deal like there is no tomorrow. And the sanctions removal spree has started.
According to a report that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif gave to Iran’s parliament on Monday, the Biden administration has offered a host of sanctions relief, including the removal of the foreign terrorist organization designation from the extremist Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the removal of sanctions on the office of the Supreme Leader and of all related sanctions on Iran’s economy.
The Jerusalem Post has reported that the Biden administration is even looking at giving up on sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile programme, human rights abuses and sponsorship and support for terrorism. All Iranian banks – except the Central Bank of Iran will be freed from sanctions. Additionally, the Iranian foreign minister also claimed Washington has agreed to terminate a number of executive orders related to sanctions, and to suspend the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012, the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act (TRA), the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act (IFCA) and the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA), as well as to withdraw a pair of 2018 Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) advisories.
This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also removed sanctions on three Iranians involved with Iran’s ballistic missile program. This removal of sanctions came despite the Biden administration claiming that no relief will be given to Iran until the Shi’ite nation suspends its nuclear programme and begins acting in accordance with the JCPOA. Evidently, Joe Biden and his top officials have been caught on the backfoot, and are now removing sanctions to lay off the tremendous steam.
According to the Wall Street Journal, despite no commitment by Iran to comply with the JCPOA or suspend its nuclear activities, the Biden administration is nonetheless determined to ease economic sanctions on Tehran. A new sanctions policy is set to be revealed by the end of summer, and among its goals is “easing economy-wide sanctions against Iran.” This policy is meant to put a halt to the pressure campaign on Iran, “avoid collateral damage and act jointly with allies rather than unilaterally.”
Joe Biden is willing to even lifting sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Ayatollah was sanctioned by the Trump administration in June 2019, after a US drone was shot down by Iranian forces. The Supreme Leader and officials appointed by him were thus banned from travel to the United States or any financial transactions with US companies.
Interestingly, the Biden administration is set to negotiate soon with the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi. The thing with Raisi, as reported by TFI, is that he has no interest in a nuclear deal. Raisi’s agenda is polarly different to that of his predecessors, and possibly, even more radical than Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself. Raisi will develop a nuclear bomb for Iran – by hook or by crook.
In his first public comments after being elected, Raisi brushed aside the US’ calls for Iran to agree to follow-on discussions on expanding the initial nuclear deal to include its ballistic missile program and its support for regional groups that the US designates as terrorist organisations. He said the ballistic nuclear programme and Iran’s support for terror organisations are “non-negotiable”.
While Democrats were quick to designate Syria’s Bashar al-Assad as a mass murderer and a power-hungry despot, when the Biden administration is now faced with real mass murderers like Raisi, it is laying out the red carpet and working overtime to lift close to all sanctions on Iran. Raisi’s “death commission” oversaw torture and execution of thousands of Iranians who spoke against the regime. In fact, U.S. has, in past, sanctioned Raisi and his organization. Why it cannot do the same now is beyond comprehension.
Ebrahim Raisi has been accused of carrying out a bloodbath in the Islamic Republic in 1988. He sat on a four-man committee that sent about 5,000 imprisoned government opponents to their deaths. Innumerable other individuals who were incarcerated by the regime were killed in custody, while they were never even sentenced to death. When asked whether he would meet Joe Biden, Raisi replied at his first press briefing with a plain ‘no’. The incoming Iranian president is simply hostile to America, and lifting sanctions on Tehran can be a suicidal move on the part of the Biden administration.
The Biden administration is practically whitewashing the crimes of the Iranian regime by going out of its way to remove sanctions imposed on the country. For its acts, Iran should have been sanctioned even more stringently. Joe Biden, however, is removing even existing sanctions.