Iran's recent hack of the Trump campaign “clearly tips the scales” in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a former national security official.
The United States revealed last week that Iranian hackers had obtained information about the Trump campaign and had been trying to distribute it to people connected to the Biden campaign and media organizations since June.
“It's probably not surprising,” Robert Greenway, a former director of Middle East policy at the National Security Council, told Fox News Digital. “Iran sees the return of Donald Trump and his policies that have brought the country to the brink of financial collapse as an existential threat.”
President Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was aimed at halting Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, and Republicans argued the deal was not sufficiently enforceable.
Mike Johnson says Harris is Iran's 'preferred candidate', demands info on Trump campaign hacks
Greenway claimed that since Biden lifted sanctions against Iran, the Iranian regime has increased its centrifuges needed to build a nuclear bomb from 500 to 7,000. Enriched uranium has increased from 5% to 60% (90% is needed for a nuclear weapon). Iran's oil exports have increased from 400,000 barrels per day in 2019, when it was under the Trump administration's tough sanctions, to 1.7 million barrels per day today.
Former President Trump arrives at the Johnnie Mercer Theater Civic Center in Savannah, Georgia, Tuesday, September 24, 2024, to deliver a speech on tax law and manufacturing. (AP/Evan Vucci)
“They made a huge amount of money. The doors were opened by the U.S. government.”
The report states: Suggest a new activity At two Iranian nuclear weapons facilities in Sanjarian and Gholab Darreh.
But another Middle East expert downplayed the incident, suggesting it could have been as simple as a Trump campaign staffer accidentally clicking on a phishing scam.
“Iran has been conducting a ton of cyberattacks all this time,” said Aaron Stein, president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
“I think this case can easily be explained as someone foolishly clicking on what was probably an obvious cyber-phishing scam, and ultimately the campaign could be embarrassed if someone chooses to make the documents public.”
“I don't know. [the Iranians] “Iran has a strong candidate in the presidential race,” Stein said. “There are numerous investigations that suggest Iran is actively seeking revenge for the murder of the president. [Iranian General] Qassem Soleimani in the Trump Administration.”
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“But the Iran nuclear deal has collapsed. I don't think anybody's going to go back to that. I think the approach to Iran will ultimately be more or less the same. Trump might be a little more belligerent, but in practical terms, I think it will be more or less the same.”
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian attends a press conference in Tehran, September 16, 2024. (West Asia News Agency/Majid Asgaripour via Reuters)
“The Islamic Republic is certainly trying to sow discord in the West,” Behnam Ben Taleb, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said of the campaign hacking. “But we cannot ignore the empirical record.”
“The reason the Islamic Republic tried to increase left-wing voter turnout in 2020, why Islamic Republic-linked accounts tried to disguise and amplify tactics associated with the progressive left in 2018 and 2019, why they most recently tried to hack the Trump campaign, and why the Islamic Republic still calls for the assassination of former President Donald Trump is because Trump was exceptionally successful in his maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic,” he said.
Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, was in New York City and struck a calmer tone at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
“We don't want to be a cause of instability in the region,” he told the crowd. “We don't want war… We want to live in peace.”
“We know better than anyone that a major war breaking out in the Middle East would not be in the interest of anyone in the world. It is Israel that is trying to create this major conflict,” he argued.
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Pezechkian was elected on promises that he could persuade Western countries to lift sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.
Tale Blue predicted that Pezechkian would travel to New York and “call on the media to convey the talking point that they are interested in nuclear talks, but in reality they will only use the nuclear talks as a human shield against real pressure.”
“They will likely try to take advantage of the permissive environment, with the support of Russia and China, to sell more oil to China and generate more revenue to fund their drone programs, their missile programs and their nuclear programs.”
