“I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists,” he said in an interview with CNBC.
He added: “We are confident that this will not result in an increase somehow in the threat to any partner or any friend in the region.”
His confidence, we now know, was misplaced.
The dollars the United States put into the pockets of Iran’s rulers has been spent to supply weapons to Hamas, Hezbollah, Shi’ite militias in Iraq and Syria and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Outside the region, Iran’s rulers are providing armed drones to Vladimir Putin, which he’s using to slaughter Ukrainians. Inside Iran, the regime has increased its persecution of dissidents—not least women.
Obama enriched Iran’s rulers to induce them to agree to his 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which he claimed would stop them from developing nuclear weapons.
In fact, at best, the JCPOA might have slightly slowed their progress toward that goal while they worked on missiles capable of delivering nukes anywhere in the world and, as noted above, funded their proxies.
President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and brought economic pressure to bear on Tehran for a couple of years. That did not cause Iran’s rulers to abandon their nuclear aspirations, but it did limit the support they could provide terrorist friends and family.
President Biden resumed sanctions relief. He’s added another $50 billion—a lowball estimate—to Tehran’s coffers so far. His initial aim was to conclude a deal that was “longer and stronger” than the JCPOA, but it soon became obvious that he was willing to settle for one that was shorter and weaker.
Iran’s rulers have shown no interest. Instead, they have expressed their hatred toward America many times in many ways.
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