When 77-year-old President-elect Joe Biden and his 58-year-old designated Secretary of State Tony Blinken take over, they may not return to the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] AKA “Iranian Nuke Deal,” one of former President Barack Obama’s signature accomplishments. Trump canceled U.S. involvement in the JCPOA May 8, 2018 primarily because Iran took $1.6 billion in cash and $150 billion sanctions relief to launch a proxy war in Saudi Arabia against a major U.S. ally. Obama and his former 76-year-old Secretary of State John Kerry spent two years negotiating a one-sided deal, ending up emboldening Iran to launch proxy wars in Saudi Arabia and Israel. Israel’s 71-year-old Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Obama and Biden to not enter into an agreement with Iran, primarily because Iran would cheat and continue to work on an A-bomb.
Netanyahu addressed March 2, 2015 a joint session of Congress warning the world about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, telling Congress that any deal would accelerate Iran’s pursuit of an A-bomb. Netanyahu knew the parameters of a U.S. deal that would give Iran enough cash and sanctions relief to fund their war in Yemen with Houth rebels to attack Saudi Arabia. Obama didn’t consider how Iran was already funding a proxy war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon to topple Israel. But to Obama, Biden and Kerry at the time, they bet Iran would comply with restrictions on their uranium enrichment program for the indefinite future. Nettanyahu correctly predicted the Iran would never let U.N. inspectors into its sensitive military facilities when they enriched uranium with high-speed centrifuges, producing enough enriched uranium to build several A-bombs.
When Biden and Blinken take over foreign policy, they’ll see that things have changed, especially with Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA. Iran has exceeded uranium limits by over 100 times designated in the original JCPOA. “Together with our partners, we strongly call on Iran to stop violating the deal and return to fulfilling all its nuclear obligations completely,” said a spokesman for German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, meeting today in Berlin with French Foreign Minister Jean-Ives Le Drian and British Foreign Minister Dominique Raab. Like Trump figured out, Iran violated the JCPOA from Day One, prior to Trump coming into the picture and canceling the deal May 8, 2018. Obama and Kerry couldn’t get Iran to agree to inspections at Iran’s underground Natanz military enrichment site, where Iran said it was off-limits to the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA].
Obama and Biden gave Iran essentially a black check to violate any agreement but, more importantly, have the resources to launch proxy wars in Saudi Arabia and Israel. It’s no accident that Netanyahu met, unofficially, with 45-year-old Saudi Defense Minister Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom. Israel recently signed peace deals with United Arab Emirates [UAE], Bahrain and Sudan, all concerned about Iran’s malign activities in the region. No one’s more concerned about Iran’s state-sponsored terrorism that Bin Salman, who’s been hit by Iranian-made missiles all the way to the Riyadh. Bin Salman knows the mayhem when Iran attacked Sept. 14, 2019 Saudi’s Abqaiqk-Kurais main oil refinery, knocking out service for several months. No one tracks Iran’s state-sponsored terrorism better that Israel’s Mossad security services.
Biden knows that things have changed since the time they inked the JCPOA July 15, 2015. Trump broke Obama’s globalist foreign policy where he deferred to the U.N. and EU, over the U.S. State Department. While collective action’s always preferred especially when it comes to military action, Biden wants to return to global action but the U.S. cannot return to reinforcing Iran’s terrorist ways. “There must be no return to the previous nuclear agreement. We must stick to any uncompromising policy to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said. When Obama and Biden called the shots, they didn’t listen to Netanyahu, plowed ahead with an agreement that the EU now recognized has been violated from Day One. Unless Biden can’t guarantee Iran’s full-and-verifiable compliance with the JCPPOA, Blinken can’t just jump back in without Iran’s submitting to inspections.
Biden and Blinken are about to find out the hard way that the world has changed since they signed the JCPOA July 15, 2015. Trump cancelled U.S. involvement because Iran funded the Houthi rebels in Yemen to fight a proxy war with Saudi Arabia. When Iranian–made Houthi missile struck the Riyadh International Airport, Bin Salman knew that Iran must be dealt with one way or another. Iran liked to gaslight the Saudis about their support for Palestinians, when, in fact, they back nothing unless it’s good for Tehran. When Biden takes office Jan. 20, 2021, his biggest priority will be containing the spiraling Covid-19 crisis, currently damaging the economy and engulfing the American way of life. Trump was punished by voters Nov. 3, but if things don’t get better soon, Biden’s honeymoon won’t last long.
