In a waste of time, energy, and money, the United States and other nations have resumed efforts to curb Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
As Axios reports, “U.S. officials have extremely low expectations as world powers resume negotiations with Iran to curb its nuclear program, believing the Iranians aren’t yet ready to negotiate seriously.”
Begun under former President Barack Obama and the execrable John Kerry more than six years ago, the Biden administration is utterly desperate to revive the failed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — which former President Donald Trump accurately denounced as “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions,” before withdrawing the U.S. in 2018 — despite limited support for the deal at home.
This week represents the seventh round of negotiations and the first since early summer.
President Biden has sent his team to Vienna to negotiate an American surrender to the ayatollahs. This administration is unwilling to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its nuclear blackmail efforts, support for terrorism, and attacks on American troops and our allies.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) November 29, 2021
Since the last meeting, the Islamic Republic inaugurated President Ebrahim Raisi, a radical cleric with an ignoble record of political violence and human rights abuses.
The new Iranian administration is toying with the inept Biden administration and its anti-Israel/pro-Iran “envoy” Robert Malley. The theocrats have a list of non-negotiables, and their chief negotiator claimed in a recent opinion piece that negotiations should center on removing “unlawful and inhuman sanctions.”
On top of ending the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” sanctions, Iranian negotiators are demanding that the U.S. lift all sanctions imposed since 2018 — including those targeting Iranian human rights abuses and sponsorship of terrorism, which do not fall under the JCPOA’s original purview — and unfreeze $10 billion in Iranian assets.
To top it off, Iranian diplomats refuse to meet directly with the U.S., communicating instead with China, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom as intermediaries.
Related: Iran is Imitating Chinese Oppression of Protestors
“Unless Iran stops pursuing nuclear weapons, sponsoring terrorism, and threatening to destroy Israel, any deal Joe Biden attempts to make is useless,” former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley tweeted Monday.
Protests against the negotiations are taking place in Vienna as well.
I'm standing in solidarity with my Iranian compatriots in Vienna who oppose the demonic Ayatollah regime and are protesting that criminal regime outside the building where negotiations over the "nuclear deal" are going on. We refuse to stay silent in face of this evil regime!👇 https://t.co/BBo5QctF4O
— Karmel Melamed (@KarmelMelamed) November 30, 2021
Earlier this year, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran was stockpiling uranium enriched up to 60% purity. Recent Israeli intelligence suggests Iran is preparing to enrich uranium to 90% purity, which breaks the threshold for developing a nuclear weapon. Tehran has predictably deprived the international community of full access to its enrichment program.
And to top it off, China has continued purchasing Iranian crude oil since the Biden administration chose not to enforce sanctions against Chinese companies amid aimless negotiations to revive the fraudulent nuclear deal — one that betrayed our allies while giving aid to a sworn enemy — and allowed Iran to sell its oil openly again.
Obama and Kerry failed miserably, yet Biden is happily doubling down on failure, making the world a more dangerous place. Maybe instead of focusing on nonsense like climate change, “voting rights,” and spending trillions more taxpayer dollars on an unpopular partisan wish list, Democrats could turn attention to actual life and death matters.
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