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Posted on March 5, 2022 by Scott Johnson in Biden Foreign Policy, Iran

The madness of slow Joe, Iran edition (2)

The announcement of a new arrangement with Iran by the Biden administration is imminent. The servants of Vladimir Putin have kindly facilitated the arrangement with the best interests of the United States at heart. Emanuele Ottolenghi’s Tablet column explains why “Accommodating Iran Will Be No More Successful Than Accommodating Russia.”

Now Richard Goldberg’s New York Post column pronounces the arrangement “the worst deal ever with Iran.” Goldberg arrives at a conclusion that I find inarguable: “Iran was cheating on the old deal from the very start and using its benefits to destabilize the Middle East. Which is exactly what they will do again, thanks to the new worst deal in history, brokered by Russia at the Biden administration’s request. It ensures the United States will face an increasingly imminent choice of military action against Iran or accepting an Iranian nuclear weapon.”

The absurdity from our point of view seems to me transparent. Why would they — Biden et al. — do this? I have no satisfactory answer to that question.

The Post notes in its author tag that Goldberg is a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who served as a National Security Council official, deputy chief of staff to former Senator Mark Kirk, and Navy Reserve Intelligence Officer. This is a particularly impressive credential: “He was sanctioned by Iran in 2020.”