U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Friday that Iran could produce fissile material within “a week or two” as the State Department renewed sanctions waivers for Iraq’s purchases of Iranian energy.
Critics were quick to accuse the Biden administration of encouraging Iran to develop a nuclear weapon by selling oil to the rogue nation. Biden has rolled back many of the tough sanctions imposed on Iran by former President Trump.
“What’s striking is the complete lack of recognition that it was Trump’s own policy of utmost deference that got us to this situation, and, even worse, that his solution is to double down on his failed policy of appeasement,” Rich Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former senior National Security Council official in the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital.
“Instead of reversing UN sanctions and applying maximum pressure, the administration is simply extending sanctions waivers and negotiating indirectly through Oman,” Goldberg lamented.
Speaking at the annual Aspen Security Forum in Colorado this week, Blinken referred to Iran’s move to develop a nuclear weapon and acknowledged that “while it would have taken them at least a year to acquire the capability to produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon, (Iran) is now probably within a week or two.”
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Blinken blamed Iran’s accelerated nuclear program on the collapse of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iran nuclear deal, and stressed that the United States has seen no evidence that Iran already has a nuclear weapon. Barron’s reported.
Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri insisted that Iran remained in compliance with the JCPOA, saying “the US has not yet been able to return to the agreement” and that Iran was seeking a return to the 2015 accord.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the NATO Open Forum in Washington on July 10, 2024. (Reuters/Yves Herman)
“We are not seeking a new agreement,” Bagheri told CNN earlier this week. “Neither I nor anyone else in Iran has discussed a new agreement and we will not discuss it in the future. We have an agreement that was (signed) in 2015.”
Iran has continued to receive sanctions relief through waivers issued by the U.S. since the Trump administration in 2018, allowing Iraq to import energy from Iran for 120 consecutive days. The latest extension came on July 11, when unbearable heat overloaded power grids across Iraq, causing widespread blackouts. This was reported by the MEHR news agency..
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“We have renewed this waiver for the 22nd time, which allows the State Department to allow Iraq to purchase Iranian electricity while it continues to develop its domestic generating capacity,” State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told a news conference.
“This is an exemption power to allow power purchase for a period of time, in this case 120 days, and it is a license to operate over a period of time,” Patel said. He told Iraqi news agency Rudaw..
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani leaves Coburg Palace in Vienna, the venue for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) conference aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear deal, on December 3, 2021. (Joe Kramer/AFP via Getty Images)
“Over the past decade, there has been a visible movement for Iraq to wean itself off its electricity supplies from Iran,” Patel added. “It is estimated that Iraq now relies on Iran for about 25 percent of its electricity, up from 40 percent a few years ago.”
While Blinken reiterated this point, saying Iraq has doubled its domestic production, many American politicians remain concerned that Iran is benefiting from these exemptions and using the money to continue developing its nuclear weapons program.
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The Biden administration has argued that the funds are kept out of the Iranian government’s hands, instead flowing through third-party “restricted accounts” that can only purchase food, medicines, medical equipment, agricultural products and other non-sanctions trade.
But critics say the move would remove financial obligations for Iran and free up spending, allowing money that would otherwise be used to fund proxies and develop nuclear weapons.
On April 28, 2024, Iran’s first nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran, will begin operation. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Let’s be honest with the American people. Both Hamas and Iran know that they are moving money right now because they know that $6 billion is going to be released. That’s the reality,” Nikki Haley said last year when news broke that the State Department had agreed to release the funds in exchange for American prisoners in September.
Behnam Ben Taleb, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who focuses on Iranian security and political issues, told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration is remaining on “autopilot” and pursuing a “shortsighted” policy when it comes to Iran at its own peril.
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“With reports of an Iranian-backed plot to assassinate a former president and related weaponization work in Tehran, the last thing Washington should approve is an extended waiver that would free up revenue for the Islamic Republic to continue to fund further global terrorism and domestic nuclear expansion,” Taleb said. “It’s one thing to recognize the need to cut off Baghdad from Tehran and Iranian power and energy, but it’s another to continue to use this as support for better policies towards Iraq and Iran.”
