Iran-US Relations Biden
"We will not allow the region’s future to be dictated by Tehran and its proxies, whose actions before, on, and since October 7th have put millions of innocent civilians at risk. It is time for de-escalation: For Iran to cease its destabilizing activities, and for us to get these diplomatic deals done. There must be serious consequences for Iran. And we have seen those consequences come to bear... The United States issued new sanctions against Iran’s oil sector, including the so-called Ghost Fleet, which carries illicit oil products around the world.... This coordinated diplomatic effort, across multiple jurisdictions, reflects a firm international consensus that Iran’s aggressive actions against Israel, including in support of its terrorist proxy Hizballah in Lebanon, are unacceptable." stated Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at a UN Security Council 29 October 2024.
As a result of the Iranian takeover of the American Embassy on November 4, 1979, the United States and Iran severed diplomatic relations in April 1980. The United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran have had no formal diplomatic relationship since that date. Switzerland is the U.S. protecting power and provides limited consular services to U.S. citizens in Iran. Iran has no embassy in Washington, DC.
Iranian politicians and experts believed that the strategy of imposing sanctions against Iran, Russia, and China is a sign of weakness rather than strength, as the West fears acknowledging that in the current system of international relations, the time of US hegemony had come to an end.
The current system of government in Iran may over time crumble due to internal weaknesses, but probably not external intervention. Democracy cannot be imported, it must emerge indigenously. Many compare the Iranian revolution to the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, saying both created governments that were systemically flawed and not sustainable. What differentiated the Iranian revolution from the Russian revolution, was that the communist revolution was based on an ideology that was largely discarded after the system fell. Iran's revolution was based on Islam, which will survive the fall of the Islamic Republic.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released the following statement 19 August 2024: "Iran seeks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions. Iran has furthermore demonstrated a longstanding interest in exploiting societal tensions through various means, including through the use of cyber operations to attempt to gain access to sensitive information related to U.S. elections. In addition to these sustained efforts to complicate the ability of any U.S. administration to pursue a foreign policy at odds with Iran's interests, the IC has previously reported that Iran perceives this year's elections to be particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests, increasing Tehran's inclination to try to shape the outcome. We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting Presidential campaigns.
"This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump's campaign, which the IC attributes to Iran. The IC is confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the Presidential campaigns of both political parties. Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. election process. It is important to note that this approach is not new. Iran and Russia have employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and prior federal election cycles but also in other countries around the world."
Tehran was the biggest focus for US foreign policy in the region. Biden made no secret of his desire to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Biden wrote in Spring 2020 that Iran must return to strict compliance with the deal. In an op-ed published by Foreign Affairs, Biden wrote: “If it does so, I would rejoin the agreement and use our renewed commitment to diplomacy to work with our allies to strengthen and extend it, while more effectively pushing back against Iran’s other destabilizing activities.” Asked what strengthening the deal would entail, Biden’s advisers said it would not solely focus on nuclear capabilities.
“The two additions to a deal will include Iran’s terrorist proxies and its ballistic and precision-guided missiles,” the former US diplomat said. He added that it would be unacceptable to “just go back to the status” under the deal brokered by Obama. And the idea that sanctions Trump slapped on Iran were too much is not an idea shared by Biden, according to people familiar with his thinking on the matter. “Some may be lifted to get Iran to recommit to a deal, but some need to be left as part of leverage as we try to push Iran to reengage on the JCPOA,” a director at a Middle East-focused think tank said.
Biden supported the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, despite his recent comments to the contrary, but Baghdad is not expected to be a priority for his administration. Similar to Lebanon, Iraq will not have a specific policy centered on its interests. It will come as part of the pressure campaign on Iran and its proxies in the region, which include Shia militias in Iraq. This was evident when neither Harris brought up Iraq in the rare interview she gave prior to the elections, nor in Biden’s two 2020 op-eds. “Iraq will be viewed through the administration’s two principal priorities in the Middle East: Returning to a negotiation path with Iran and ending forever wars,” senior fellow at the Middle East Institute Randa Slim recently wrote.
Glenn Grothman [R-WI], chair of the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, stated 13 September 2023: "Signed under the Biden Administration, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA was touted by the left as a fix-all to the Iranian nuclear dilemma. In reality, it did little to reign in the Iranian regime while rewarding it with literal pallets of cash. In May 2018, the last Administration withdrew the United States from the JCPOA due to Iran's continuing bolstering of its ballistic missile program and its funding of terrorist groups around the globe. Then-candidate Biden pledged that he would return the United States to the JCPOA but has since failed to uphold that pledge. Instead, the Administration has negotiated in secret and has failed to be transparent with Congress or the American people on negotiations with the Iranian regime. The lack of transparency is occurring despite the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act's expansive disclosure requirements....
"Finally, the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Robert Malley, the Biden Administration's first Special Envoy for Iran, are highly unusual. Malley's career has been marked by a long history of appeasement toward adversaries of the U.S in the Middle East. In 2008, while serving in the Obama Administration, Malley was forced to resign after he was found to have repeatedly met with the terrorist organization Hamas. In 2019, Malley also met with Iran's then foreign minister to undermine President Trump's maximum pressure campaign against Iran. Most recently, Malley was increasingly absent from official duties and repeatedly ignored congressional briefing requests. The White House subsequently defended Malley, stating that he was taking personal leave, but it has since come to light that the State Department revoked Malley's security clearance and placed him on unpaid leave in June."
The United States and Iran on 18 September 2023 carried out a high-stakes prisoner swap that included freeing five Americans the U.S. government says were unjustly detained by the Tehran government. Three of the Americans in the swap were identified as Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz, who along with the other two Americans were under house arrest pending their release. The identity of the other two individuals remained private at their families' request. U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement the five individuals would "soon be reunited with their loved ones—after enduring years of agony, uncertainty, and suffering." He thanked the governments of Qatar, Oman, South Korea and Switzerland "for their tireless efforts to help us achieve this outcome."
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News’ Fox and Friends on October 3, 2024 to discuss President Biden's inaction as multiple crises rage in America and around the world. Leader Scalise slammed the Biden-Harris Administration for reversing President Trump’s sanctions that were crippling Iran’s economy and preventing them from funding attacks on our ally Israel and terrorism around the world.
“Yeah, this has been a problem under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris since the day they took office. They reversed all the sanctions that President Trump took in place that were crippling Iran's economy to go and support terrorism around the world. Iran's made about $100 billion, Lawrence, selling their oil on world markets since Joe Biden took off those Trump sanctions that were working to cripple Iran's economy. Now, Iran's making all this money. They're funding terrorism – Hamas, October 7th, came out of that. The Houthis that are attacking our troops, and Biden just sits back and does nothing. Kamala does nothing. Let them defend themselves. Israel has a right to self-defense, whatever it is, including nuclear sites.”
Regarding the talk about Biden facilitating Iran’s limited oil sales, or in other words turning a blind eye to Iranian oil tankers to some extent, Biden did not allow this, but rather Iran was the one who managed to circumvent the sanctions.
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