Two third-world countries run by fanatical, anti-American governments emerged this last week smelling like roses after Joe Biden empowered Iran with $6 billion in cash and Vladimir Putin legitimized North Korea with cash and gifts that will keep both nations at the throat of the United States for years to come.
This is the Age of Biden where America’s friends are thrown under the bus and America’s enemies are allowed to arm themselves with weapons that could bring about Armageddon.
This past week, Joe Biden validated Iran’s policy of hostage-taking by paying the fanatics in Tehran a true king’s ransom: $6 billion. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claims that the U.S. will control the disbursal of this money, and it will be used only to buy food and medicine. The Iranian government says it can use the money any damn way it pleases. Who are you going to believe?
As for North Korea, Vladimir Putin has struck gold in treating North Korea’s murderous dictator Kim Jong-un as a normal human being. According to Western intelligence, Kim and Putin discussed the sale of millions of rounds of ammunition that Russia gifted to North Korea in the 1950s and could be returned to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine. Kim has also apparently offered Putin tens of thousands of short-range missiles that Russia desperately needs.
This bonanza came relatively cheap for Putin. In addition to giving North Korea access to Russian military technology. Russia gave Kim a few drones and an extra-large bulletproof vest to cover the corpulent torso of Mr. Kim.
Kim’s neighbor South Korea was none-too-pleased with North Korea’s growing closeness with Moscow.
“Military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is illegal and unjust as it contravenes U.N. Security Council resolutions and various other international sanctions,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said in written responses Sunday to questions from The Associated Press. “The international community will unite more tightly in response to such a move.”
But it was Iran that hit the jackpot, the lotto, and the Daily Double all in the same day.
“Just as critics of the JCPOA view the release of billions of dollars of reserves as a threat, Iranian officials point to those large numbers as a boon,” said the economist Esfandyar Batmanghelid, who founded the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a think tank focused on economic issues in the Middle East. “Iran cannot operate normally in the global economy without the ability to use its foreign exchange reserves and to make transfers between currencies.”
The deal gives Iran the incentive to take five more Americans hostage — or more. The only way to stop Iran’s hostage-taking is for Biden to state in no uncertain terms, with no equivocations, that henceforth, any American stupid enough to go to Iran or remain there will be left to rot in prison.
Both Biden and Blinken have denied it, but the hostage release and $6 billion gift to Iran may be part of an effort to revitalize the Iranian nuclear deal (JCPOA).
Mr. Raisi said Iran was eager for talks on JCPOA “with any country that wants to cooperate with Iran with mutual respect.” In Washington, Secretary Blinken said “we uphold the remaining nuclear sanctions due to the fact that the Iranian nuclear program is so advanced.” He cited “severe and continuing” Iranian violations against the JCPOA but insisted Washington was always “open to diplomatic solution.”
That response was eerily similar to American responses to Mr. Kim’s wheeling and dealing with the Russians. Multiple officials have warned that North Korea and Russia “will pay the price” for trading vital materiel in violation of UN sanctions that Russia agreed on before invading Ukraine.
It seems silly to attempt to resurrect the nuclear agreement with Iran, especially since it already may have a weapon. The best-case scenario is that it’s a few weeks away from having a nuclear weapon based on the highly enriched uranium it has already stockpiled.
Empowering America’s enemies is what Joe Biden does best. He gets a gold star for what happened in North Korea and Iran this past week.
