Senior Biden administration officials have testified under oath that the administration would enforce sanctions on Iran, but according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) evidence is piling up that these officials lied to Congress.
“Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to China, and Ramin Toloui, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, were both pressed during their Senate confirmation hearings late last year on Iran sanctions enforcement,” explains the Washington Free Beacon, which obtained copies of their sworn written testimony, during which they both “vowed to uphold sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil trade and pressure China on the matter.”
But those vows appear to have been empty promises. Since the two officials were confirmed last year, Iranian oil sales to China and other countries have jumped 40%, which suggests that the Biden administration is choosing not to enforce sanctions imposed on Iran. The Iran Nuclear Deal, an illegal treaty Barack Obama negotiated without Senate ratification, is currently being renegotiated by the Biden administration after President Trump got us out of the deal, which gave the world’s number one terrorist-sponsoring nation a pathway to a nuclear weapons program.
According to Cruz and other Republicans, it is likely that Burns and Toloui never intended to uphold sanctions on Iran and deliberately misled Congress so as to assure their confirmation.
“The new agreement President Biden hopes to finalize with the Ayatollah would open up vast new weapons markets to Putin and more energy for Xi’s expansion, all while injecting billions of dollars for terrorism around the Middle East and beyond,” Cruz told the Washington Free Beacon. “President Biden and Biden-Harris officials are feverishly appeasing Russia, China, and Iran—and those countries are then allying together to collectively undermine American interests.”
A senior congressional Republican aide also told the Beacon that “it’s increasingly clear that Biden officials will say and do anything to get confirmed, but then they all implement Biden’s fringe anti-American, pro-China, pro-Iran agenda. No wonder the administration has zero credibility with Congress or anyone else.”
This really should surprise no one. The Biden administration has, from the very beginning, sought to reset America to the Obama-era status quo. Joe Biden also promised during the 2020 campaign that he would get us back in the Iran nuclear deal, which means, like Obama, he was set on kowtowing to Iran by giving them a pathway to nuclear weapons. But, like Obama, giving Iran a pathway to nukes was never the only means of kowtowing to Iran. Looking the other way of sanctions was inevitable, and shame on any Republicans who believed otherwise.
The Biden administration has never given us any reason to trust them on Iran. Earlier this year, we learned that the Biden administration was conducting secret negotiations with Iran as they were renegotiating the nuclear deal. Why would the Biden administration want to have secret negotiations? Probably for the same reason the Obama administration kept Congress out of the loop of their negotiations and why Obama didn’t even bother going to the U.S. Senate for ratification. Joe Biden won’t bother getting ratification either—thanks to the precedent set by Obama.
Perhaps the biggest fault here lies with the Republicans in the U.S. Senate, who have done very little but complain when such a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution has occurred. Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran was a treaty, as is whatever it is Biden is currently negotiating, but lack of Senate ratification makes it illegal. Just as Trump got us out of the deal that Obama negotiated, the next Republican president will be just as able to get us out of the one Biden is negotiating. But until that happens, Biden will go forward giving Iran money and the means to pursue nuclear weapons because Republicans haven’t done enough to stop an illegal treaty from taking effect.
