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The Biden administration’s dream of cutting a nuclear deal with Iran was already on life support, but the deadly Hamas terrorist assault on Israel this month may have been the death blow.
President Biden is facing intense bipartisan pressure to take a tougher stance toward the regime in Tehran, which is Hamas’ primary financial backer and has expressed strong support for the brutal Oct. 7 assault that killed more than 1,400 Israelis.
The attack has led to some tangible changes in the administration’s approach, most notably the temporary refreeze of $6 billion in Iranian oil assets that were set to be freed up in exchange for Tehran’s release last month of five American hostages.
Some officials inside the administration and on the American political left have long argued that Iran’s support for terrorism and its malign activities across the Middle East are exactly why an agreement is needed to keep Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb.
The administration spent nearly two years trying to revive the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, of JCPOA, which lifted some economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.
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Former President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of that pact in 2019. The Biden administration’s effort to resurrect the deal collapsed last year and now appears all but dead.
The optics of the U.S. pursuing another round of diplomacy with Iran during a full-scale war between Israel and Hamas appear challenging at best.
Some analysts say the dream of rapprochement with Iran will remain in the Democratic Party regardless of Iran’s rhetorical and financial support for Hamas terrorism.
“If the Biden administration were to base policy on reality, then it would be easy to recognize the error of trying to moderate a genocidal group like Hamas or its sponsors. But ego matters more than truth to too many Biden officials who have built their careers on engagement with Iran,” said Michael Rubin, a former Defense Department official and now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Iran talks become ‘a religion’
“They do not have the integrity or sense of responsibility to admit error,” Mr. Rubin said in an interview. “Talking to Tehran has become a religion.”
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Critics say the administration is sending the wrong policy signal even while Iran publicly celebrates the deaths of Israeli civilians at the hands of Hamas.
As evidence, they point to Jacob J. Lew, the president’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel.
Mr. Lew served as Treasury secretary during the Obama administration when the JCPOA was struck. Republicans took direct aim at Mr. Lew this week for his role in that deal, which subsequently funneled significant amounts of money to Iran that may have helped the Islamic republic fund Hamas and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia.
“Not only will you need to support Israel as it responds to these attacks but also as it contends with the enduring, and indeed existential, Iranian threat, which I think is an underlying and foundational issue here,” Sen. James E. Risch, Idaho Republican, told Mr. Lew during a confirmation hearing this week before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“I have reservations about your ability to do that,” said Mr. Risch, the committee’s ranking Republican.
Mr. Lew said the Iranian regime has economically sanctioned him personally, which he called proof that he is no friend of Tehran.
He told lawmakers that his “reputation as someone who stands with Israel is beyond question.”
“I want to be clear: Iran is a threat to regional stability and to Israel’s existence,” he said. “If confirmed, I will uphold President Biden’s commitment to deny Iran a nuclear weapon and warning to the region that anyone who’s thinking of taking advantage of the current crisis — don’t.”
Terrorist links
Iran supports Hamas and Hezbollah to the tune of about $100 million per year. U.S. officials say nothing suggests operational Iranian involvement in Hamas’ slaughter of Israelis on Oct. 7, but they acknowledge that such a well-funded and well-coordinated attack would be unlikely without Tehran’s long-standing support.
“There’s a long relationship between Iran and Hamas. In fact, Hamas wouldn’t be Hamas without the support that it’s gotten over many years from Iran,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC News the day after the Hamas assault on Israel.
In the days since, the administration has taken several significant steps on Iran, including the Treasury Department’s new sanctions on Hamas members. Hamas’ financial network includes a Qatar-based financial company with close ties to Tehran.
On Wednesday, Mr. Blinken announced new sanctions against Iran’s missile and drone programs to curb Iran’s ability to build and export weaponry to other nations. Russia is using Iranian drones in its war in Ukraine.
“The United States has worked to disrupt Iran’s missile program. … We will continue to do so, using every tool at our disposal, so long as Iran poses a threat to security and stability in the Middle East region and around the world,” Mr. Blinken said in a statement.
A day earlier, a bipartisan group of more than 100 House lawmakers sent a letter urging Mr. Biden to take a tougher tack toward Iran, including harsher economic sanctions.
“Iran must be held fully accountable for its continued role in funding Hamas and Islamic terror,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to the president. “We urge the administration to take all necessary steps to cut off Iranian funding sources.”
The 63 Democrats and 50 Republicans wrote that the “necessary steps” include maximum enforcement of U.S. sanctions and an end to Iran’s oil trade with China.
Mounting a renewed diplomatic push to strike a deal with Tehran seems difficult to imagine.
Even before the Hamas attack, the administration’s hope for a new agreement appeared to have hit a dead end.
Negotiations effectively ended last year with Iran’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, its harsh crackdown on domestic protests and its backing of Shiite militias that routinely target U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
Diplomacy was further derailed when Robert Malley, the administration’s chief Iran envoy, had his security clearance suspended this year under mysterious circumstances.
The longtime Democratic diplomat was a key architect of the JCPOA and had been the point man in the effort to revive it.
Congressional Republicans say they are still in the dark about the details surrounding the suspension of Mr. Malley’s security clearance.
• Ramsey Touchberry, Mallory Wilson and Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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