The Biden administration — through the State Department specifically — is reportedly considering issuing a waiver to Iran that would allow access to another $10 billion worth of previously frozen cash, this time held in Iraq.
STATE DEPARTMENT MULLING WAIVER TO GIVE IRAN ACCESS TO $10+ BILLION. DECISION TODAY. MORE TK.
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) November 13, 2023
This alarming development comes after the Biden administration — in the days before Iran-backed Hamas terrorists launched their October 7 slaughter of Israelis — unfroze billions of dollars for Iran as part of a questionable prisoner swap arrangement. Since that deal was made, Iranian proxies have continued to launch attacks at Israel as well as U.S. troops in the Middle East, wounding dozens of American service members.
More on the inexplicable situation from the Washington Free Beacon and FDD Senior Advisor Richard Goldberg:
The Biden administration may approve a sanctions waiver on Tuesday that will allow Iran to access at least $10 billion in previously frozen funds held in Iraq, a closely watched decision that comes just a month after the Tehran-backed terror group Hamas launched an attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead.
The waiver would extend the multibillion-dollar sanctions relief first issued in July that expires tomorrow. It allows Iraq to transfer frozen electricity payments into Iranian-owned bank accounts in Europe and Oman. The waiver renewal is driving concerns that the Biden administration is maintaining financial avenues for Tehran as the country’s terrorist proxies foment chaos across the Middle East.
"The world is living in a post-Oct. 7 world, but the White House is still running an Oct. 6 policy toward Iran," Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and sanctions expert who previously served on the White House National Security Council, told the Washington Free Beacon, referring to Hamas’s attack last month. "Why should Iran have any access to more than $10 billion after sponsoring one of the worst terrorist attacks against American citizens and the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust? It would make more sense to freeze all of these accounts and keep every penny out of Tehran's hands."
Why, on God's green earth, the Biden administration would consider more funding for the world's leading state-sponsor of terrorism as its proxies escalate their attacks on Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East is beyond comprehension.
If the Biden administration thinks that the way to get Iran and its proxies to stop attacking American service members in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East is a bribe payment, they might just be the worst policymakers to traipse D.C.'s corridors of power. If anything, it shows that Biden is unserious about preventing Iran's malign actions and influence and seemingly wants to see current hostilities in the region devolve into wider war.
It's not difficult to understand: Iran needs money to fund its terrorist proxies. When there isn't money, they can't support the likes of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, or the Houthis in Yemen and the ability to carry out attacks is diminished. But when they're flush with cash, terrorism naturally increases as Tehran can send more funds to those bloodthirsty terrorists which happily put the investment to work killing Israelis, Americans, and other free people in the Middle East and even elsewhere around the world.
Instead of waiving sanctions on billions of dollars for Iran, the Biden administration should be snapping back the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran, clamping down on Iran's illicit oil sales, and certainly not allowing sanctions on Iran's weapons programs to expire.
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