Why is Biden still courting Iran?

OPINION:

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Why is President Biden still treating Iran as if it were our friend or ally? His actions — such as honoring Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s deceased president, lobbying our European allies not to censure Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s meeting, and ignoring Iran’s steady march to nuclear weapons — make no sense.

Raisi was known as the “butcher of Tehran” for having condemned tens of thousands of political prisoners to death. Even though he obviously didn’t deserve it, the United Nations Security Council stood for a moment of silence to honor the terrorist. U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood stood with the other members of the council.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan said honoring Raisi was “a disgrace.” Mr. Erdan was exactly right.

Why did Mr. Biden — or Secretary of State Antony Blinken — order Mr. Wood to stand to honor the “butcher of Tehran”?

Over the past three weeks, Mr. Biden and Mr. Blinken have reportedly been lobbying France, Germany and the United Kingdom not to  take up a measure censuring Iran for its continuing pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Let’s interject a little history here. Egyptian Mohamed el-Baradei was director general of the IAEA from 1997 to 2009. In 2005, he and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

That prize was awarded for Mr. el-Baradei’s and the IAEA’s consistent actions, which turned a blind eye to Iran’s nuclear weapons program. No matter how strong the evidence that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons, the IAEA ignored it.

Under IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, the IAEA has apparently awakened to at least some of its responsibilities as the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog. Hence the effort to censure Iran for, among other things, violating its supposed legal obligations to disclose its nuclear sites and other safeguards with which it has complied.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom said in a March 7 statement to the IAEA board that action to “hold Iran accountable to its legal obligations is long overdue.” They clarified that they would pursue a resolution at the board’s quarterly meeting last week if there was no “decisive and substantive progress” on the safeguards investigation.

We need to remember that France, Germany and the U.K. were among the most enthusiastic supporters of then-President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear weapons agreement with Iran. Even they are now willing to take the small step of censuring Iran at the IAEA.

There is no doubt in any honest person’s mind that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. It may already have one or more.

Iran is known to have stockpiled enough enriched uranium to produce three warheads as soon as it chooses to further enrich it from 60% to a weapons-grade of 90%, a relatively small effort.

We should remember that last year, Russia exited the nuclear test ban treaty. It can surreptitiously test one or more of Iran’s nuclear bombs and claim it was testing one of its own.

The IAEA is, of course, powerless to enforce any censure motion. Nevertheless, it censured Iran on June 5. Our representative voted for the resolution. Why were Mr. Biden and Mr. Blinken unnaturally fearful that even an IAEA censure of Iran would upset what they were trying to do?

Most American presidents have, since the 1979 Iranian revolution that put the ayatollahs in power, vowed that Iran would never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. In August 2022, Mr. Biden joined that club by telling then-Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid that Iran would never be allowed to have nuclear weapons. Mr. Biden has evidently forgotten that vow.

As this column has pointed out repeatedly, the only thing that former President Donald Trump did that Mr. Biden hasn’t undone is canceling Mr. Obama’s 2015 deal with Iran. Can he still believe that renewing that agreement is possible?

That may be why Mr. Biden is still cozying up to Iran. And there are other reasons.

On June 4, Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri, confirmed that the U.S. and Iran were negotiating in Oman. He said, “We have always continued out negotiations … and they have never stopped.”

Iran wants more sanctions relief from the U.S. in exchange for false promises to limit its nuclear weapons program. Mr. Biden has already waived sanctions permitting Iraq to purchase electricity from Iran, putting billions of dollars in Iran’s pockets. Further sanctions relief may be coming, which is another reason that Mr. Biden is still chasing the false dream that Iran could become a stabilizing influence in the Middle East.

Mr. Obama pursued that false dream, and Mr. Biden is still doing the same. It is a false dream because Iran cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons, even less so than North Korea. Iran is and will continue to be one of the world’s greatest purveyors of violence and instability.

Iran, as this column has stated repeatedly, will never give up its nuclear weapons program peacefully. Mr. Biden’s diplomacy is infamous for surrendering one initiative after another without getting something in return. If Mr. Biden’s appeasement results in a nuclear-armed Iran, his legacy may be a nuclear war that begins in the Middle East.

• Jed Babbin is a national security and foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Times and contributing editor for The American Spectator.