Obama's Middle East Destabilization

Part 4 of our series on how Barack Obama undermined U.S. democracy

We’ve long maintained that the Biden Administration is little more than an extension of the Obama administration - in effect, the manifestation of Obama’s third term as president (or fourth depending how one counts). And one of the more obvious examples of this lies in the Biden Administration’s approach to Iran. 

Many are aware of the unconscionable actions from Biden’s State Department in late 2023 - which issued waivers allowing Iran to receive $6 billion in frozen funds that had been held by South Korean banks. Under the plan, the Biden administration and Iran agreed to a prisoner swap - trading Iranian nationals convicted of illegally exporting controlled technology to Iran for five American citizens wrongfully imprisoned by the Iranian regime. 

The pivotable part of Biden’s Iran deal provided for U.S. waivers to South Korea - enabling the transfer of $6 billion in funds that had been frozen by the U.S. under Trump. The funds, which originated from oil purchases, were transferred to an account overseen by Qatar. 

Biden’s State Department went to great lengths to assure us that there would be significant restrictions on the use of funds, which would ostensibly be limited to food, medicine, and medical equipment. We were also assured that Washington would have “full visibility” over the Iranian’s use of the funds.

Of course, this is a laughable position to take - for a variety of reasons. Qatar is not only a long-time promoter of radical Islamic groups, it is the long-standing home to the political leadership of Hamas. Qatar serves as the primary financial hub for most Islamic terrorist networks, and is sympathetic and supportive of Iran.

Biden’s choice of Qatar as the supposed “overseer of the funds'' was extremely telling. If they wanted to, Qatar could have simply kept the escrowed funds and paid Iran out of another account. But there’s a more direct issue as well. Cash, unlike specific goods, is fungible. Even if Iran was to use the $6 billion as designated, these new funds from Biden freed up other funds that would have been spent on the same items.

The reality of Biden’s plan was to effectively increase Iran’s budget by $6 billion. A huge amount relative to the size of their economy. $6 billion that had been allocated elsewhere within their budget was just freed up for Iran’s ongoing funding of terrorist activities. And Iran made no secret of their intent. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that his government would decide how it will spend the $6 billion in previously frozen funds, telling NBC News’ Lester Holt that the money will be spent "wherever we need it."

The Biden administration knew full well that any funds transferred to Iran would be used in their ongoing sponsorship of terrorism. In the initial aftermath of Hamas’s attacks on Israel, Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken effectively admitted on Meet the Press that they knew in advance what Iran would do with the newly-released funds, stating that "Iran has unfortunately always used and focused its funds on supporting terrorism".

But the situation was actually even worse than it appeared on the surface. The United States had also facilitated another, earlier waiver, this time involving Iraq, that effectively freed up $10 billion, in addition to the more recent $6 billion.

Iraq announced in July 2023 that it would repay billions of dollars in natural gas debts owed to Iran using Iraqi oil instead of cash - a move that was a violation of U.S. sanctions absent authorization and waivers from Washington.

That transaction didn’t happen in a vacuum. It followed weeks of reporting related to a U.S. offer to free up cash for Iran so long as Tehran agreed that it wouldn’t produce weapons-grade uranium.

There’s also another, less-reported path that was allowing Iran to bring in huge amounts of cash: the export of oil to China. Despite ongoing sanctions, China has been a huge buyer of oil from Iran with the Biden administration willfully looking the other way. In total, Iran has been exporting as much as 2 million barrels per day - all allowed by the U.S. government.

This intentional funding of Iran by the Biden regime - an almost inexplicable willingness to capitulate to an outright sponsor of terror at every opportunity - only makes sense when it’s viewed as a continuation of Obama’s approach to Iran.

An approach that was highlighted during the concessions Obama orchestrated throughout the Iranian Nuclear Deal saga. A deal so favorable to Iran that the former president of Iran claimed that “The most important job of our foreign minister is first to stand behind the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” - or JCPOA as the Iran Nuclear Deal was formally known.

When Obama decided to assume personal leadership of the Iran nuclear negotiations, the Iranian economy was straining under a decades old series of economic sanctions. Rather than support Congressional wishes to further tighten sanctions, thereby maintaining financial pressure on the ruling Mullahs, Obama chose to loosen economic restrictions as a prelude to his negotiations.

The Iranian economy began growing again in 2014 – and so did Iran’s negotiating power. Obama signed a deal with Iran that allowed the Iranians to hide much of their nuclear activities, lacked any real semblance of enforcement or penalty, ended all economic sanctions, ended embargoes on ballistic missiles and, perhaps most importantly, began to expire in ten years.

Obama himself admitted that Iran would have full nuclear capability almost immediately after the deal expired. In exchange for this most favorable of agreements, we gave the Iranians access to more than $120 billion in funds held abroad and plane’s loaded with pallets of cash. And just like Biden, Obama orchestrated the release of seven Iranian men as part of the deal.

At the time of the deal, Obama characterized them as “civilians, businessmen, awaiting trial for mere sanctions-related offenses and violations of the trade embargo”. In reality, these men stood accused by the DOJ as posing a National Security threat.

It’s worth reiterating that Obama effectively gave away our negotiating strength before real discussions even began.

When Obama decided to get personally involved in Iran, the country was buckling under the pressure of sanctions from international sanctions. Iran’s GDP shrank by 9% between March 2012 and March 2014 and was later estimated to be 15-20 percent smaller than it would have been without the sanctions.

The U.S. Treasury stated that sanctions cost Iran $160 billion between 2012-2015. More than $120 billion of Iranian reserves held in banks abroad were inaccessible. As a result, Iran’s currency, the rial, utterly collapsed.

In the first ten months of 2012, the Iranian currency lost more than 80% of its exchange value. In a single day, on October 1, 2012, it dropped by 15%. The collapse of the rial caused inflation to spike from an already uncomfortable 20.6% in 2011 to 27.4% in 2012. Inflation in Iran would peak at 39.3% in 2013. Iran was under enormous economic pressure.

But things began to change for Iran when Hassan Rouhani, a former nuclear negotiator, was elected president of Iran in 2013. Three days after his inauguration, Rouhani called for the resumption of negotiations with China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States on Iran’s nuclear program.

On September 27, 2013, Obama personally called Rouhani – marking the highest level contact between the U.S. and Iran since 1979. Talks began in October 2013 in Geneva. On November 23rd, Obama announced the first round of sanction relief for Iran. Congress, meanwhile, had been pushing for further tightening of sanctions in front of negotiations.

Obama’s sanction relief was significant. It included $3 billion in cash, plus another $16-17 billion in gold, petrochemical and automotive sanction relief. A $20 billion package that gave a staggering 25 percent boost to Iran’s total foreign exchange reserves.

The announcement by Obama translated to a flood of Trade Delegations visiting Iran – including ten delegations just in the first two weeks of January 2014. Iran’s economy began to recover almost immediately. Iran’s GDP grew 3% in 2014. Inflation fell from 39% to 17%.

As the Iranian economy began growing, so did Iran’s negotiating power. On July 14, 2015, the United States, along with Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany reached an agreement with Iran. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action lifted all economic sanctions and allowed Iran to access $120 billion in reserves held in banks abroad.

The JCPOA also contained a fatal flaw – Sunset Clauses: The sunset clauses allowed for critical nuclear, arms, and ballistic missile restrictions to disappear over a five- to 15-year period. All Tehran had to do was simply abide by the agreement to emerge as a threshold nuclear power with an industrial-size enrichment program.

That same agreement would also allow Iran to begin spreading weapons throughout the middle east. Because of the Sunset Clauses inserted by Obama, the international arms embargo imposed on Iran expired on October 18, 2020.

This meant that the supply, sale, or transfer of “any battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles, or missile systems to Iran would no longer require U.N. Security Council approval.” U.N. member-states would also no longer be obligated to prevent the supply, sale, or transfer of arms or related material from Iran.

As predicted in a 2019 report, “the expiration of this arms embargo would have immediate destabilizing consequences for Yemen, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Israel. Terror organizations like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, Hezbollah, and Hamas would become the likely beneficiaries of this sunset provision.” We now know with certainty that this prediction was entirely valid.

There was another major problem with the agreement as well. The JCPOA’s Key Requirements stated that for eight years ballistic missile restrictions would remain in place. This assertion was repeatedly put forth by the Obama Administration. But Obama had quietly made several notable changes to the language on ballistic missiles.

Buried deep within the JCPOA, on page 99 in Annex B, item 3 resides the actual language: “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”

Called upon. Designed to be capable. These were incredibly crucial differences versus the original language contained within the earlier UN Resolution, which stated that “Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology.” Those changes were not made by accident.

Iran began building missile complexes in Syria and Lebanon. On August 15, 2017, The Times of Israel reported Iran’s construction of a missile production facility in Syria near the coastal city of Baniyas, north of Tartus.

Then, on August 22, 2017, Iran’s atomic chief shocked the International Community by stating that Iran needed only five days to ramp its uranium enrichment back up to 20 percent – the level at which the uranium could quickly be further enriched for use in a nuclear weapon.

Obama’s Iranian Nuclear Deal was less than toothless. It effectively solved all of Iran's problems. Iran, by their own admission, managed to retain full capability to resume 20 percent uranium enrichment almost instantaneously.

The JCPOA preserved Iran’s nuclear capability. It was not materially reversed, merely suspended. International pressure abated. The Iranian economy immediately rebounded with the lifting of sanctions and foreign investment flooded back in.

The JCPOA materially also loosened restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile advancement, and as a result, Iran’s ballistic missile program is far more advanced today. And finally, Iran was allowed access to over $120 billion in cash.

At the time of JCPOA, the New York Times summed up the situation perfectly: The Obama administration “described an Iranian capability that had been neutralized; the Iranians described a nuclear capability that had been preserved.”

Iran negotiated with a willing counterpart in the Obama Administration and emerged with its Nuclear Program slowed – but essentially intact. In return, Iran was given access to a huge pool of overseas cash and a flood of foreign investment. Iran could rebuild its economy and resume its nuclear program. It could also begin to spread armaments and terror throughout the middle east.

The horror we witnessed in Israel and the resulting spread of war, destabilization and conflict throughout the Middle East falls not only at the feet of Biden but with the originator of all of this. Barack Hussein Obama.