OpinionMiddle East

The Biden administration’s dangerous Iran legacy

Iran has been rapidly advancing its uranium enrichment to a level just below that needed for a bomb since Biden took office, and reports state that they may be planning to test one.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, shows then-President Hassan Rouhani models of nuclear centrifuges, April 9, 2019. Credit: Iranian President’s Office.
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, shows then-President Hassan Rouhani models of nuclear centrifuges, April 9, 2019. Credit: Iranian President’s Office.
Majid Rafizadeh
Majid Rafizadeh

Thanks to the Biden administration’s appeasement of the Iranian regime, the mullahs have apparently become more emboldened than ever to test a nuclear bomb. Secret attempts by the administration to reach an interim deal with the mullahs threaten not only to add an estimated $100 billion into the treasury of the Iranian regime’s struggling economy, but, worse, catapult an Iranian nuclear menace onto the world.

Iran’s aggression threatens not only its own brutalized citizens—Iran has executed more than 200 people in just the first half of this year, and deliberately poisoned more than 1200 schoolgirls—but also the entire regionEurope and the United States.

New European intelligence reports recently disclosed that the Islamic Republic has sought to skirt sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States in order to accelerate testing of an atom bomb.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) published the intelligence documents with translations. According to Ayelet Savyon, director of MEMRI’s Iran Media Project:

“The reality is that Iran has not in any way backed off from its efforts to build nuclear weapons, has taken every opportunity to advance its technological capabilities to this end and has for years misled the international community and lied about its intentions while at the same time widely publicizing its goal to legitimately attain nuclear-threshold status, and continues doing so to this day.”

Reports also indicate that the Iranian regime’s illegal nuclear activities have escalated in 2023 under the Biden administration’s watch. According to the 2022 report of the Netherlands General and Intelligence Security Service:

“Last year, Iran proceeded with its nuclear program. The country continues to increase stocks of 20% and 60% enriched uranium. By means of centrifuges, this can be used for further enrichment to the 90% enriched uranium needed for a nuclear weapon. Iran is further ignoring the agreements that were made within the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). And by deploying increasingly more sophisticated uranium enrichment centrifuges it is enlarging its enrichment capacity.”

In addition, the Swedish Security Service noted in its annual report for 2023:

“Iran engages in industrial espionage, which is mainly aimed at the Swedish high-tech industry and Swedish products that can be used in nuclear weapons programs.”

Adam Samara, a spokesperson for the Swedish Security Service, told Fox News Digital:

“The Swedish Security Service can confirm that Iran are conducting security-threatening activities in Sweden and against Swedish interests…

“Examples of these activities are industrial espionage targeting Swedish high-tech industries and unlawful intelligence gathering targeting Swedish higher education institutions. Iran seeks Swedish technology and knowledge that can be used in their nuclear weapons program.

“The Swedish Security Service has an ongoing collaboration with our international partners, but we do not however go into details concerning that collaboration.”

In spite of these factors and the strong opposition from Congress—including a warning from U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul that according to the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, any agreement, even an informal one, with Iran about its nuclear weapons program must be approved by Congress and no funds released until 60 days have passed—the Biden administration has been holding​ ​secret talks in Oman to reward the Iranian regime with a nuclear deal that will pave the way for it legally to obtain as many nuclear weapons as it likes, empower the ruling mullahs with billions of dollars, lift sanctions, allow it to rejoin the global financial system and enhance the theocratic regime’s legitimacy on the global stage.

The Biden administration also reportedly wants to immediately pump $17 billion into the Iranian regime’s treasury “for humanitarian purposes,” as if the administration has no idea that money is fungible and will obviously free up previously allocated “humanitarian funds” for nuclear and terrorist work. These benefits will not only enable Iran to complete its nuclear weapons program, but also to send more arms to Russia to attack Ukraine, as well as to enable the regime’s ongoing expansion even further over the Middle East—in IraqSyriaYemenLebanon and the Gaza Strip—as well as throughout Latin America.

Ever since the Biden administration assumed office, Iran’s ruling mullahs have been rapidly advancing their uranium enrichment to levels just below those needed for a nuclear bomb, and reports state that they may be planning to test one. In March 2023, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told the House Armed Services Committee that Iran’s nuclear program had made “remarkable” progress.

At present, according to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Iran reportedly has enough enriched uranium to produce five nuclear bombs. “Make no mistake,” Gallant told his Greek counterpart Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos during a visit to Athens on May 4, 2023, “Iran will not be satisfied by a single nuclear bomb. So far, Iran has gained material enriched to 20% and 60% for five nuclear bombs… Iranian progress, and enrichment to 90%, would be a grave mistake on Iran’s part, and could ignite the region.”

Along with this Iranian plan to join the “nuclear club,” abetted by the Biden administration, this same administration, in the face of Iran’s openly stated commitment to Israel’s destruction, is, according to one report, now pressuring Israel to “commit suicide” or risk losing American support.

The dangerous legacy the Biden administration appears to want to leave includes threats to the only democracy in the Middle East while capitulating to the world’s most vicious dictators in AfghanistanChinaVenezuela and Iran—which the U.S. State Department has called the “top state sponsor of terrorism”—and which will soon, thanks to the Biden administration, be armed with nuclear weapons.

Originally published by the Gatestone Institute.

The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
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