OPINION:
It’s a curious confluence of events. As world leaders gather at the United Nations’ Manhattan headquarters for the General Assembly’s annual opening, the United States and Iran conclude a months-in-the-making prisoner swap in which the Islamic Republic also recovers $6 billion in frozen assets.
The timing suggests a superpower’s generous concession to an unruly pariah state, but the act of humility could easily be mistaken for a bow to indignity.
Monday’s release of five Iranian Americans wrongfully detained in Iran was cause for relief for their families — and all Americans — as a Qatari jet dispatched to retrieve them touched down in Doha. Relatives of the five citizens of Iran serving sentences mostly for violating U.S. sanctions likely experienced similar elation.
Yet the U.S. move to free up billions in Iranian funds for “humanitarian” expenditures is a concession that Iran did not reciprocate, giving it the look of a ransom payment.
Moreover, the Islamic regime apparently felt no fear of spoiling the sweetheart deal when, days before, it boldly informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it was expelling one-third of the agency’s inspectors tasked with monitoring Iran’s threatening nuclear program.
In some settings, the grace to look past annoyances is worthy of admiration. On the global stage, though, it is difficult to rebut the notion that President Biden allowed himself to be rolled by the mullahcracy, and that the octogenarian didn’t mind that the mugging went down with 150-odd world leaders watching from the U.N.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Fox News that the timing of the deal was purely coincidental. Perhaps someone actually believed him.
Almost overshadowed by the latest wrinkle in the decades-long Iran saga, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the U.N.’s fall gathering to deliver a “Rescue Plan for People and Planet.”
Owing to the unpredictability of such phenomena as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and violent conflict, only 12% of the U.N.’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals targeting poverty, hunger and well-being, among other things, are reportedly on track for achievement.
As conspicuous as the U.N. attendees are the absentees. Of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, only the United States is represented. Most glaring in their refusal to join Mr. Biden in New York are Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Contrarily, the duo who control the bulk of the Asian landmass are assembling their own power bloc, labeled BRICS, as a challenge to the world order.
Given China’s central role in spreading COVID-19 and producing greenhouse gases and Russia’s ongoing assault on neighboring Ukraine, it is clear the U.N.’s priorities are not exactly their own. Their absence hasn’t deterred Iran, a new BRICS recruit, from making the most of its moment in the spotlight by owning Mr. Biden before the world.
By effectively paying ransom to Iran coinciding with the U.N.’s premier annual gathering, President Biden has demonstrated that he is not too proud to bow before a roguish power of lesser stature, setting a precedent for similar indignities in the future.
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