(May 6, 2022 / JNS) The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected the Biden administration’s outline for a deal with Iran. Members voted 86-12 to approve a motion that opposes the lifting of terrorism sanctions on Iran to limit cooperation between it and China. Senators also voted 66-13 to approve a motion to block the delisting of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The lawmakers also demanded that any final deal must address all of Iran’s destabilizing activities.

The United States has been engaged in a controversial debate over removing the IRGC from its FTO list and only keeping its foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, under sanctions. Iran has rejected a partial removal of sanctions and insists that all designations be removed.

Commenting on the vote, Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, tweeted: “Biden Iran policy has failed. No pressure led to no deal. Most of Iran’s nuke expansion since Biden election. Iran sensed weakness & made maximum demands re IRGC. Senate just overwhelmingly rejected deal they offered Iran. Change policy now. Change personnel now.”

Dubowitz recalled a CNN article in September 2020 in which U.S. President Joe Biden argued for a “smarter” way to be “tough” on Iran.

“May 2022, his ‘smarter’ Iran policy has spectacularly failed,” wrote Dubowitz. “Time for new ‘tough’ policy and new personnel with credibility to execute.”

The Biden administration’s policy, which relies mainly on appeasing Iran in Vienna to achieve any deal, appears to be faltering as the talks have largely stalled over the IRGC issue. Now, there are murmurings of the talks breaking down completely with no deal to be signed at all.

‘An escalation in Israeli actions?’

According to Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, if no deal is signed, “there is greater legitimacy for acting against the Iranian nuclear program and its branches.”

Inbar suggested to JNS the possibility that we may see “an escalation in Israeli actions, primarily covert. We may also see U.S.-Israeli cooperation in such endeavors.”

In the event this becomes reality, he said, Israel’s new friends in the Gulf “will get even closer to Israel,” and this level of cooperation “may be enough to prevent [Iran’s] race to the bomb.”

A lot depends on what happens in Vienna.

The Vienna talks, which began in April 2021, aim to return America to the 2015 nuclear deal made under the Obama administration, including through the lifting of sanctions on Iran, and to ensure Tehran’s full compliance with its commitments.

The United States unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and reimposed economic sanctions in May 2018 under the Trump administration.

Until March 11, Tehran had been engaged in negotiations with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly, and the United States indirectly, to revive the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The Iranian and U.S. negotiating teams have been exchanging messages through the European coordinator of the Vienna talks, Enrique Mora. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Tuesday stressed that Tehran and Washington are still exchanging messages through Mora despite the halt in Vienna talks.

“We urged the American side to be realistic,” said Amir-Abdollahian. “Removing sanctions in all areas and receiving economic guarantees are among the most important items on our negotiating team’s agenda.”

Talks broke down after Iranian negotiators demanded removing the IRGC from the FTO.

Russia also demanded guarantees that Western sanctions imposed against it after its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine would not damage its trade with Iran.

The 2015 deal provided Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to ensure that Iran would not develop a nuclear weapon—a goal Iran has long denied.

But last week, former Iranian politician Ali Motahhari told Iran’s ISCA News: “When we began our nuclear activity, our goal was indeed to build a bomb. There is no need to beat around the bush,” he said.

And even though the United States is aware of Iran’s destabilizing regional activities and its continuing work on the nuclear front, it insists on negotiating with Iran.

‘Less money to fund and conduct terrorism’

On Monday, U.S. Department of Defense Spokesman John Kirby told reporters that “Iran continues to be a malign actor in the region. They continue to support terrorist groups; they continue to develop a ballistic-missile program. They obviously, even as they sit in negotiations, continue to develop certain nuclear capabilities.

“And they are harassing shipping and clearly pose a threat in the maritime domain. You pick it. There’s an awful lot there that Iran is doing in a malign way in the Middle East region. … No problem in the Middle East is easier to solve with Iran having a nuclear weapon. So, we continue to support the work of our diplomats as they try to get a new agreement here on their nuclear development.”

Last month U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the House Foreign Relations Committee that the breakout time for Iran to produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon is just “a matter of weeks.”

Pushing back against Blinken’s argument that Iranian aggression is a result of Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, former special adviser for the Iran Action Group in the Trump administration Gabriel Noronha advocated tougher sanctions, tweeting: “As U.S. sanctions are enforced more, the Iranian regime has less money to fund and conduct terrorism.”

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS “we’ve seen this play before. References to a diminishing breakout time by the administration have often been ways to justify the next round of concessions to Tehran or justify the current JCPOA-centric approach.”

Source: https://www.jns.org/biden-administrations-iran-policy-failing-as-senate-rejects-appeasement/

The post Biden administration’s Iran policy failing as Senate rejects appeasement first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A group of 25 Republican members of Congress wrote a letter to US President Joe Biden this week pledging to block any sanctions relief for Iran, as negotiators meet in Vienna to try to reach an agreement on the nuclear deal.

The letter, obtained by The National, accuses the White House of withholding information from Congress and ignoring requests to provide details about the nature of negotiations with Tehran.

“Despite over a dozen letters by members of the Republican Study Committee asking for information on Iran sanctions enforcement, your administration has continued to leave Congress in the dark regarding its plans to weaken sanctions enforcement and provide sanctions relief to Iran,” the letter read.

The committee has more than 150 Republican members and advocates for conservative policies on defence and foreign policy issues.

In the letter, the signatories re-assert the power of Congress to impose sanctions on Iran.

“We are writing to remind you that the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and hence the ability to enact economic sanctions resides in Congress,” it said.

The Biden administration entered indirect negotiations with Iran this week in Vienna, with talks centred on Tehran’s demands for sanctions relief.

Russia’s representative to the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, tweeted on Tuesday that progress has been made on “sanctions lifting and nuclear issues”.

Mikhail Ulyanov@Amb_Ulyanov
The resumption of the #ViennaTalks is quite successful. At the very beginning of the seventh round #JCPOA participants decided to continue without delay the drafting process in two working groups- on sanctions lifting and nuclear issues. This work starts immediately.

Asked if the Biden administration was willing to lift sanctions on Iran, State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter said on Monday that the goal is compliance.

“I won’t get into the details or any hypotheticals from here, but I’ll just focus on the goal, which is a mutual return to compliance … that’s in America’s national interest and we believe it’s the best available option to restrict Iran’s nuclear programme and also provide a platform to address Iran’s destabilising conduct,” Ms Porter explained.

“If Iran demands more or offers less than a mutual return to compliance, these negotiations will not succeed.”

But the Republican signatories to the letter, first reported on by The Free Beacon, are threatening to block any relief if they win a majority in the House in next year’s midterm elections.

“When Republicans return to the majority soon, we look forward to re-asserting Congress’s authority over economic sanctions by passing the Maximum Pressure Act and circumscribing the ability of your administration, like the Obama administration before it, to lift sanctions and abuse waiver and license authorities to provide sanctions relief to Iran,” the letter said, referencing Trump-era legislation that codified the sanctions regime aimed at stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

In the Senate, legislation to prevent the US from rejoining the nuclear deal was introduced in February and has gained the support of high-ranking senators such as Jim Risch, Marco Rubio, Susan Collins, Ted Cruz, Tim Scott and others.

It stipulates that the lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran cannot take place without addressing the full scope of Iran’s malign activities, which include “its nuclear programme, ballistic and cruise missile capabilities, weapons proliferation, support for terrorism, hostage-taking, gross human rights violations and other destabilising activities”.

For the Biden administration to lift some of the sanctions imposed under Donald Trump — such as those placed on Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi — it would need congressional review.

Such a move would allow Republicans to force a vote on killing the agreement in Congress.

The Israeli government, which opposes a return to the nuclear deal, has warned the Biden administration that Iran is preparing to enrich weapons-grade uranium, Axios reported on Monday.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz is expected to visit Washington this week.

Source: https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/us-news/2021/11/30/congressional-republicans-vow-to-block-us-sanctions-relief-for-iran/

The post Congressional Republicans vow to block US sanctions relief for Iran first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The US and Saudi governments have made a joint public appeal to the UN Security Council to extend the 13-year old arms embargo on Iran or risk a renewed arms race in the Middle East.

“Iran has not earned the trust to have the embargo lifted… The last thing this region needs is more Iranian weapons,” said Brian Hook, President Donald Trump’s special representative on Iran during a joint press conference in Saudi Arabia. Mr Hook stood alongside Adel Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs.

Parts of what were said to be missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen were laid out behind them. Nearly 400 missiles and rockets have been fired from Yemen into Saudi Arabia, said Mr Hook, adding that this would not have been possible without assistance from Iran.

The joint press conference made no mention of the £5.3bn ($6.5bn) worth of arms reportedly sold by the UK to Saudi Arabia since the Yemen war accelerated in March 2015, nor of the large number of Yemeni civilians killed by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, drawing widespread international criticism.

• Why is there a war in Yemen?
• Who are Hezbollah?

The US has been, for many years now, the largest supplier of weapons to the Gulf region but Iran has managed to defy stringent sanctions by exporting both military hardware and advisers to its proxies in the region, notably Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – Reuters/EPA Images

“We call on the UN Security Council to extend the arms embargo on Iran,” said the US envoy, warning that if the embargo were allowed to lapse then Iran would be able to export “battle tanks, artillery, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, drones and missile systems to its proxies”, as well as upgrading the range and lethality of its weapons systems and posing what he said would be an even greater threat to shipping in the region.

“No leader I have spoken to thinks this is a good idea.”

A recent study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) concluded that despite being under sanctions Iran had succeeded in gaining the strategic advantage over its rival, Saudi Arabia.

• Saudi Arabia country profile
• Iran country profile

The disparity in wealth between the two countries is enormous, with the richer Saudis expending billions of dollars on expensive and sophisticated state-of-the-art weaponry. Yet none of this was able to prevent a devastatingly effective missile and drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s critical oil infrastructure last September. In the space of just a few minutes, a flurry of missiles fired under cover of darkness temporarily took out half of Saudi oil exports.

“These missiles were Iranian,” declared Adel Jubeir today. “They came from the north.”

The attack was a wake-up call to the Saudi government that US-supplied air defences could not necessarily protect the country from a concerted “swarm” attack by low-tech weapons. It also helped prompt a Saudi realization that its military campaign in Yemen was probably unwinnable and that a political solution to that war was the only way to end it.

While the Saudis and their Western allies have supported the UN-recognised Yemen government-in-exile, Iran has supplied weaponry and advice to the Houthi rebels who still control most of the more populated areas. Aid agencies have warned of a looming catastrophe if the conflict continues.

On Tuesday, said Mr. Hook, UN experts will present their findings to the UN Security Council. He said Iran had committed numerous violations of multiple UN arms embargos. “If this is what Iran is doing now,” said the US envoy, “imagine what they will do if restrictions are lifted?”

The BBC has asked the Iranian government for comment.

The post Middle East risks renewed arms race, US warns first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed legislation Thursday imposing new sanctions against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group behind the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings.

Speaking at a White House event marking the 35th anniversary of the attack that killed 241 Marines, Trump said, “No terrorist group other than al-Qaeda has more American blood on its hands.”

The bill expands the list of those who can be sanctioned for doing business with Hezbollah.

Trump described the sanctions as “starving” Hezbollah.

“We will target, disrupt, and dismantle their operational and financing networks — of which they had plenty; they don’t have plenty now,” he said without elaborating.

Supporters of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah hold a banner with his portrait and Arabic words that reads: ‘All the loyalty to the man of nobility,’ during an election campaign speech, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, April 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Trump also said that Iran had retreated from efforts to gain access to the Mediterranean Sea. Israeli officials have warned repeatedly in recent years of an Iranian attempt to create a conduit to the sea through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

“They’re not looking so much for the Mediterranean. When I took office, they were looking for the Mediterranean. They were going to take over everything. Now they want to survive,” he said.

He said sanctions against Iran set to kick in early next month as part of his pullout of the 2015 nuclear deal would be “just as good” as those that had been removed under predecessor Barack Obama, and promised more in the future.

“We will not allow the world’s leading sponsor of terror to develop the world’s deadliest weapons. Will not happen,” he said.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-imposes-new-hezbollah-sanctions-promises-more-against-iran/

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That’s when the Treasury Department is set to restore many of the sanctions the Obama administration lifted as part of the Iran deal.

The Trump administration said the regime in Tehran is on shaky ground, though officials deny they’re trying to collapse Iran’s government.

“Our policy is not regime change but we want to put unprecedented pressure on the government of Iran to change its behavior,” said John Bolton, the White House national security adviser, in an interview on Fox News. “So far they have shown no indication that they are prepared to do that.”

A senior administration official said these restored sanctions are designed to constrict the revenue Iran uses to fund “terrorists, dictators, proxy militias, and the regime’s own cronies.”

They target Iran’s dealing in U.S. dollars, its currency abroad and business in precious metals, aluminum, steel, coal and its auto industry.  In November, the administration said it will restore sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas and banking sector.

In a statement Monday, President Trump restated his opinion that the 2015 international accord to freeze Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions was a “horrible, one-sided deal.” He said it left the Iranian government flush with cash to use to fuel conflict in the Middle East.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said these sanctions render Trump’s proposal to meet meaningless.

“We are ready for talks to see how they are going to compensate and pay us back,” said Rouhani. “America owes the Iranian nation for several interventions in their country. They should both apologize to us and compensate for the past. If they do so, we have always been ready for talks.”

An administration official said the U.S. will aggressively enforce these sanctions, potentially subjecting businesses from allies to penalties.

“Individuals or entities that fail to wind down activities with Iran risk severe consequences,” said President Trump in a statement.

Britain, France and Germany have been working with Iran, China and Russia to salvage the Iran deal.

“We are determined to protect European economic operators engaged in legitimate business with Iran … the preservation and maintenance of effective financial channels with Iran, and the continuation of Iran’s export of oil and gas,” said a joint statement from Great Britain, France, German and the European Union.

A senior administration official said the United States had visited more than 20 countries to lobby governments and businesses and warn them about conducting business with Iran. The U.S. likely will get a much better sense of the success of that effort shortly as these sanctions return.

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