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Iran: Another Nuclear-Armed Dictatorship Flush with Cash and Attacking its Neighbors

(Tablet) Gabriel Noronha - The deal being negotiated in Vienna is dangerous to U.S. national security, to the stability of the Middle East, and to the Iranian people who suffer most under that brutal regime. The lack of evidence to justify a removal of U.S. sanctions is illegal, and the deal that will be foisted upon the world without the support of Congress will be illegitimate. This deal will not serve U.S. interests in either the short or long term. The U.S. has promised to lift sanctions on some of the regime's worst terrorists and torturers, on leading officials who have developed Iran's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) infrastructure, and may agree to lift sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) itself. In exchange, Iran will receive fewer limitations than those imposed under the 2015 JCPOA, and the restrictions on its nuclear program will expire six years sooner than under the terms of the old deal. Iran is set to get access to a massive windfall of cash: My latest estimate is $90 billion in access to foreign exchange reserves, and then a further $50-$55 billion in extra revenue each year from higher oil and petrochemical exports, with no restrictions on how the money can be spent. The most troubling will be the $7 billion ransom payment the U.S. is preparing to pay for the release of four Americans from an Iranian jail. They are innocent victims who have suffered unjustly for far too long. But this payment will only supercharge Iran's hostage-taking industry. After Obama paid Iran $1.7 billion for four Americans back in 2016, Iranian clerics and generals bragged about it for years.At prices like these, more Americans are sure to land in Evin Prison. The writer served as Special Advisor for Iran in the U.S. State Department in 2019-2020.
2022-04-04 00:00:00
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