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FOREIGN POLICY

Under the Biden Administration’s Watch, Iran Sanctions are Violated with Impunity by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18631/iran-sanctions-violated

The Biden administration’s weak leadership — to hold accountable those who are violating Iran sanctions — is likely a critical reason the Iranian regime is flamboyantly ignoring the US and forging ahead — soon, most likely, to become a nuclear state.

Presumably to take even further advantage of the Biden administration’s weak leadership, the Iranian regime is also signing long-term agreements with its oil clients to permanently insulate its economy from the US sanctions.

The ruling mullahs are now producing more oil and selling it at levels close to the pre-sanctions era to countries such as China, which desperately needs more oil, while the Biden administration has cut off US oil exploration.

One of its terms [of the deal recently signed between China and Iran] is that China will invest nearly $400 billion in Iran’s oil, gas and petrochemicals industries. In return, China will have priority to bid on any new project in Iran that is linked to these sectors. China will also receive a 12% discount and can delay payments by up to two years. China will also be able to pay in any currency it chooses. It is also estimated that, in total, China will receive discounts of nearly 32%.

The Biden administration must impose drastic economic sanctions on Iran’s energy and financial sectors: that would threaten the ruling clerics’ hold on power, forcing the leadership to recalculate its priorities. The US must hold those who violate the sanctions strictly accountable, and make clear to the ruling mullahs that if they continue advancing their nuclear program, military options are on the table.

With total disregard to the Biden administration and the European powers, the ruling mullahs of Iran are defiantly and rapidly advancing their nuclear program to a point where they are now reportedly only few weeks away from manufacturing nuclear weapons according to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the White House.

Arabs to Biden: Shut Down Iran’s ‘Expansionist Project’ by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18628/arabs-biden-iran

Ahead of Biden’s visit, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, in a clear message to the US administration and other Western powers, affirmed that any nuclear agreement or future negotiations with Iran must address the Iranians’ “destabilizing behavior in the region, their support for terrorist militias, and their missile program.”

“Western countries prefer to talk about upcoming measures, preparing us for their failure to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but the truth is that we are in a race against time, and it is still possible to force Iran to abandon its secret plans to acquire nuclear weapons. The problem is that the entire international community does not seem serious and resolute in dealing with this issue and deterring Iran.” — Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, founder and chairman of the Gulf Research Center, alanba.com.kw, June 14, 2022.

Iran thinks with the “mentality of an empire” and that is why it is continuing its efforts to extend its control to several Arab countries. — Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, alanba.com.kw, June 14, 2022

Washington’s Arab allies have repeatedly warned that the US against complacency with the Iranian threat, “specifically after the instructions of the administration of former President Barack Obama to build a partnership with the Tehran regime under the roof of the nuclear agreement that contributed to Iran’s pervasiveness, and gave it free rein, allowing it to increase its hostile activities against the countries of the region without being held accountable for the consequences of its reckless policies.” — Khaled Al-Yemany, former foreign minister of Yemen, independentarabia.com, January 26, 2022.

[T]he Arab countries have always preferred dialogue with Iran, but this was seen by the mullahs as a sign of weakness. — Khaled Al-Yemany, independentarabia.com, January 26, 2022.

Tehran is using negotiation diplomacy to achieve more military gains and develop its arsenal in the nuclear and missile fields and missile technology,” he said. “The reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency confirm that Iran is far from the commitments it made in the nuclear agreement, and it is progressing to build a nuclear bomb. A nuclear Iran, its expansionist project that destabilizes regional and international security and stability will be more ferocious and its ambitions will transcend all borders, and it must be deterred before it is too late.” — Khaled Al-Yemany, independentarabia.com, January 26, 2022.

[T]he Arab and Western media have remained silent about the Iranian people’s protests against the corruption of the regime, which spent its wealth to destroy four Arab countries (Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq). — Abdul Jalil Al-Saeid, Syrian author, al-ain.com, June 7, 2022.

The Arabs are saying that they expect the Biden administration to reverse its stance on the mullahs and act in accordance with reality: that Tehran poses a catastrophic threat to America’s allies – all of its allies, Arab and Israeli alike – in the Middle East.

As US President Joe Biden prepares to visit Saudi Arabia and Israel in mid-July, Arabs are sending him a number of messages regarding the need to deal with the threat that Iran’s mullahs pose to their security and stability.

The Arabs, especially those living in the Gulf states, continue to express deep concern over the Iranian regime’s ongoing efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.

A nuclear Iran in our world: Victor Sharpe

https://www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharpe

The belief is growing that the Islamic Republic’s military and diplomatic aggressiveness, along with its imminent possession of nuclear weapons, is tied directly to President Biden’s administration and its policies of weakness and appeasement.

Obama’s previous disastrous domestic and international administration included providing vast funds to Iran, which allowed the jihadist regime in Islamic Iran to construct weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and the means to deliver them with ICBMs to the United States.

Likewise, Biden provides the hostile Islamic Iranian regime with additional funds which it is reported to be using to train jihadi terrorists to enter America though the porous US/ Mexican border to plot murderous and destructive Islamic terrorist attacks in American cities and large towns. Recently several such Iranian terrorists were apprehended trying to infiltrate the southern border. But how many may have successfully evaded capture?

It seems that President Biden and his handlers are not interested in protecting America and saving American lives. So, while Biden and his Obama era handlers negotiate, Iran keeps killing and endangering Americans.

U.S. Restraint Has Created an Unstable and Dangerous World Decades of ignoring the menaces posed by Russia and China has led the West to a precipice.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/06/17/us-miliitary-strategy-geopolitics-restraint-russia-china-ukraine-war/

By H. R. McMaster, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a former U.S. national security advisor, and Gabriel Scheinmann, the executive director of the Alexander Hamilton Society.

The Biden administration failed to deter Russia from its second invasion of Ukraine. Like his predecessors in the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden went to great lengths to placate and reassure Russian President Vladimir Putin in return for stable relations. Biden defied Congress when he refused to sanction the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, unilaterally extended U.S. adherence to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty without reciprocation by Russia, and honored Putin with a bilateral summit during his first overseas trip. As Putin amassed his troops on Ukraine’s borders, Biden pulled U.S. naval forces out of the Black Sea, refused to send additional weapons to Ukraine, enumerated everything the United States would not do to help Ukraine defend itself, and evacuated U.S. Embassy staff and military advisors. More broadly, the administration proposed a real cut to the defense budget; sought to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense strategy; restricted U.S. production capacity for oil, gas, and refined products that might have displaced Russian supplies; and signaled its willingness to overlook Russian and Chinese aggression in exchange for hollow pledges of cooperation on global issues such as climate change. After surrendering Afghanistan to a terrorist organization and conducting a humiliating retreat from Kabul, the administration’s attempts to deter the Russian invasion with threats of punishment were simply not credible.

Deterrence, however, does not disintegrate overnight. Contrary to the narrative of U.S. belligerence and imperialism that has been impressed on countless university students, the United States has, since the end of World War II, largely pursued a policy of restraint despite its considerable military power.

Mahmoud Abbas Wants to ‘Turn the Screws’ on the U.S. Why exactly are we coddling him in his preposterous demands? Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/06/mahmoud-abbas-wants-turn-screws-us-hugh-fitzgerald/

The Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, wants to “pressure” the American government to do his bidding before Biden visits the Middle East on a trip scheduled for this July. A report on the rich fantasy life of Abbas is here: “Feeding Palestinian delusions,” by Mitchell Bard, JNS.org, June 8, 2022:

“Palestinian Leadership Plans to Increase Pressure on U.S. ahead of Biden’s Visit.”

This headline in the Daily Alert was illustrative of why Palestinian delusions are mainly responsible for their plight. The article associated with the headline said the Palestinians want to “turn the screws on the White House in order to secure lucrative overtures from the Americans.”

Excuse me. Who is the superpower in this equation?

Somehow believing the United States would care about yet another empty symbolic gesture, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas announced that he is considering suspending the Palestinians’ 1994 recognition of Israel. At the time, Yasser Arafat’s letter was viewed as a game-changer. Palestinians finally acknowledged reality and took a necessary step to convince Israel to negotiate with the PLO leader. It was not sufficient, however, and ultimately [that recognition of Israel by the PA] has proved meaningless as Abbas repeatedly states that the Palestinians will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state; the Palestinians have spent every year since “recognition” engaged in terror; he and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, rejected all peace offers; and the Palestinians have not abandoned their pipedream of establishing a state replacing Israel.

Who cares if the PA suspends its recognition of Israel? How will Israel be harmed, given the Abraham Accords that have allowed it to normalize ties with four Arab states, with more members in the offing, including Saudi Arabia? It is the PA that is on the ropes, abandoned by its most important Arab allies, not the Jewish state that with each passing year becomes stronger economically, militarily, and politically. Israel is the original Start-Up Nation that has become a technological powerhouse; every major American tech company now has offices in Israel. Israel has more tech companies that are “unicorns” – that is, upon their IPO, they are valued at more than $1 billion — than any country except the U.S. itself. After China, Israel is the foreign country with the most companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. After Japan, Israel is the foreign country with the most American patents.

Iran’s Nuclear Program: Where Is the Biden Administration’s Plan B? by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18619/iran-nuclear-program-plan-b

There also exists the dangerous likelihood, if and when Iran’s regime has nuclear weapons, that they will fall into the hands of Iran’s proxies and militia groups, or that the regime will share its nuclear technology with its proxies and allies, including the Syrian regime and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Iran’s regime has already been setting up weapons factories abroad, and manufacturing advanced ballistic missiles and weapons in foreign countries, such as in Syria. These weapons include precision-guided missiles with advanced technology to strike specific targets.

“The mission of the constitution,” the preamble [of Iran’s constitution] stipulates, “is to create conditions conducive to the development of man in accordance with the noble and universal values of [Shiite] Islam.” The constitution goes on to say that it “provides the necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the revolution at home and abroad.”

Eliminating Israel was not only one of the main religious prophecies of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, it is also a leading policy of his successor, the current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Israel will be erased from the face of the earth.

If the Biden administration allows Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, President Joe Biden and his associates, like Neville Chamberlain’s illusory “Peace for our time,” will have as their legacy that it was their acts alone that destabilized global security and set the world at risk.

It is therefore imperative that the Biden administration let the ruling mullahs know — credibly — that Iran’s regime must eliminate the possibility of its having nuclear arms, period. No nuclear deal, no sunset clauses. Sunset clauses merely pave the way for Iran to resume enriching uranium at any level it chooses. The regime’s ballistic missile program, which is linked to its nuclear program, must also be eliminated.

It must be made unmistakably clear to the Iranian regime that the United States and its allies will not allow the current regime, a state sponsor of terrorism, to arm itself with nuclear weapons and emerge as yet another global nuclear threat.

The Biden administration’s nuclear negotiations to revive the nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) with Iran’s ruling mullahs are going nowhere, all while the administration does not seem to have a Plan B.

Why Have Negotiations? Shoshana Bryen

https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/authors/shoshana-bryen/

In December, the Biden administration quietly proposed a five-government summit to enhance prospects for the “two-state solution” it promotes as key to Middle East regional security. Israel, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and the United States would meet to discuss, discuss … discuss … what?

Israel apparently waited several months to see if something useful would materialize but has now said it will not participate. No surprise. Negotiations work best; in fact, they work only when the parties have a common endgame. Hashing out the mechanisms, concessions, policies, gains and losses is the way to get to an agreed-upon future. These five governments have no common view.

Israel sees the future in the Abraham Accords. Egypt, and even Jordan, recognize that Accords countries (plus, Saudi Arabia and a few others that are close but not yet there) have a plan that includes economic, social, political and security gains for all the parties. Most recently:

A free-trade agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates;
An Israeli orchestra played in Egypt;
MoUs by an Israeli tech delegation in Morocco;
The renovation of a Moroccan Jewish cemetery;
Israel’s Independence Day being marked (as a holiday!) in Bahrain and Morocco;
A security agreement and air overflight rights between Saudi Arabia and Israel;
Israel’s participation in CENTCOM plans and exercises to secure the Red Sea.

War among them is a relic of the past.

The Palestinian leadership, however, insists that the past is not only the past, but also the present and the future. Oddly, President Joe Biden and the U.S. State Department are doing nothing to disabuse them of the notion.

Slow Joe goes to Israel By Barry Shaw

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/06/slow_joe_goes_to_israel.html

The dates have been fixed for Biden’s visit to the Middle East: July 13-16, and the schedule looks loaded with pitfalls for the fumbling president.

His visit to Israel coincides with the Opening Ceremony of the Maccabiah Games which is always covered live on Israeli TV. For many Israelis, who have low expectations, Biden’s visit will be a distraction. What can he deliver for Israel?

The only four items that Biden has been fixated on for 50 years are:

Stopping Jews living in Judea and Samaria,
Dividing Jerusalem our capital,
Pushing for a “two-state” non-solution, even if the other state will inevitably be controlled by Hamas,
Increasing U.S. taxpayer money to the unrepentant regressive corrupt Palestinian Authority. Biden ignores two U.S. laws banning such payments until the PA commits not to use the money to reward their terrorist killers.

We call it their “Pay to Slay” reward system. The more Jews you kill, the more money you get, courtesy of the funding from the United States, Europe, and the UN.

This obscenity has to stop, but under Biden the payments are increased.

After telling Israel he has our backs, he will meet Mahmoud Abbas, probably in Bethlehem, to tell him he has Biden’s full support and money, no strings attached.

Biden’s New Policy Funds China’s Military, Supports Slavery, Achieves Nothing by Peter Schweizer

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18616/biden-china-policy-support

Previously, U.S. policy was that Americans were forbidden to invest in companies included in a “blacklist” of Chinese companies directly involved in China’s military, and in producing applications used by the Communist regime to oppress its own people and threaten its neighbors. The new “answers” amount to a wholesale abandonment of a policy Americans of all political stripes supported.

[I]t can also be seen as part of a long easing of economic sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, without obtaining any benefit for American prestige or negotiating leverage with China in return.

The 48 companies included on the initial Trump administration blacklist all work directly with the People’s Liberation Army, Chinese intelligence, or otherwise provide artificial-intelligence products and services used by Beijing to deny the human rights of its Uighur minority.

While Hikvision and Sinochem’s listed subsidiaries are not traded on major U.S. exchanges, they have been included in index funds carried by such giants as Vanguard and BlackRock.

There is no penalty for investors who continue to hold these stocks after the grace period, which ended in June 2022. All the order says is they may not buy any more shares, nor can they (after the grace period) sell what they have, without OFAC approval.

[M]oves like this should be offered only in negotiation with the Chinese over things important to American national security, and the peace and freedom of our allies. Giving up on it because it was “confusing” to international financial institutions is a sad excuse.

And it comes at a time when the Biden administration has also announced a tariff waiver on solar panels coming from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. This action, explained as a “bridge” while domestic solar panel manufacturing ramps up, re-opens a previously closed door to China’s dumping solar panels into the U.S. market.

At the same time, China is these days more belligerent, more aggressive, and more of a problem than ever. What exactly is the Biden administration getting for its quiet retreat from the tougher trade policies of the Trump administration?

Not a more conciliatory stance on Taiwan. China will “definitely not hesitate to start a war” over a Taiwan split, Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe warned the U.S recently.

Not help for American business.

Recently the Biden administration issued new answers for Americans invested in Chinese companies with direct ties to Beijing’s military. Previously, U.S. policy was that Americans were forbidden to invest in companies included in a “blacklist” of Chinese companies directly involved in China’s military, and in producing applications used by the Communist regime to oppress its own people and threaten its neighbors. The new “answers” amount to a wholesale abandonment of a policy Americans of all political stripes supported.

Solar Panels: Biden’s ‘Buy China’ Plan by Gordon G. Chang

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18609/solar-panels-biden-china

Beijing set out to destroy the American solar panel industry with subsidies that allowed Chinese companies to sell below the cost of manufacture — and, with the help of a series of neglectful American presidents, it largely succeeded.

Americans workers cannot compete with slaves. Chinese solar panels are often made with what is politely termed “forced labor,” Uighurs and other captive Turkic minorities transported around China to factories resembling concentration camps.

Now, thanks to Biden, products built by forced or slave labor will find their way into the United States tariff-free. Chinese producers have been shipping China-made products into Southeast Asian countries — most notably Vietnam — and exporting them to the U.S. with labels falsely showing manufacture in those other countries.

Biden “has opened the door wide for Chinese-funded special interests to defeat the fair application of U.S. trade law.” — Mamun Rashid, Auxin Solar’s CEO, NBC News, June 6, 2022.

“We have not invested in building up American capacity the way we should, and we have not addressed China’s repeated cheating,” [Senator Sherrod] Brown [D-Ohio] stated. “On all these decisions, American solar manufacturers and their workers must be at the table.” Biden, unfortunately, has taken away the seats of these domestic stakeholders.

The second implication is even more important. Biden with his tariff waiver, dog-whistled to American manufacturers to keep factories in China.

Biden always says he wants to support American manufacturers, but he keeps making decisions favoring Chinese workers. He did that June 6 when, with a single stroke of his pen, he devastated a U.S. industry, undermined the American legal system, and promoted slave labor in China.

On June 6, President Joe Biden, declaring a national emergency, granted a 24-month tariff exemption for solar cells and modules from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The biggest beneficiary of Biden’s move is none of those countries. It is China. The biggest victim is America.