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Senators emerging from a confidential briefing on Iran on Wednesday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they were skeptical of the prospects for nuclear diplomacy with Tehran.
“It’s obviously a work in progress. But it looks like – and things can always change – that won’t happen anytime soon, ”Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez (DN.J.) told POLITICO after hearing from Blinken. Menendez, one of the few Democrats to oppose the Obama-era nuclear deal, said the indictment released Tuesday over the alleged kidnapping plot raises questions about “the correct faith of the Iranians “.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) Said there were “not many good options at this point” and that “going out has not improved the situation for us. , for our allies, for the region and our friendly Europe ”- a reference to the decision of former President Donald Trump in 2018 to withdraw the United States from the agreement.
Critics, meanwhile, took the opportunity to demand that the administration drop the talks.
Representative Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that the United States would lose influence over Iran, as reinstatement of the 2015 agreement means the lifting of many economic sanctions American. Without the sanctions, the United States cannot guarantee that Iran will discuss other thorny topics beyond the nuclear issue, McCaul said.
“This is a regime that is holding American hostages and actively trying to kidnap an American from the streets of New York,” McCaul said in a statement. “President Biden should not make any deal with Iran without ending these assaults on our citizens.”
The indictment, unsealed in Manhattan on Tuesday, alleges that four Iranian nationals with intelligence ties plotted to kidnap a Brooklyn-based Iranian-American journalist who sharply criticized the Tehran regime. Journalist Masih Alinejad confirmed that she was the target. A fifth person has also been charged with related charges.
According to Deputy Director Alan E. Kohler Jr. of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, “the Iranian government has ordered a number of state actors to plot to kidnap a journalist and an American citizen based in the United States, and to conduct surveillance on American soil – intending to lure our citizens to Iran in retaliation for their freedom of speech.
The plotters tried to find different ways to bring Alinejad back to Iran, including putting pressure on those close to him. They even considered using “military-style speedboats” to see if they could transport her from New York to Venezuela, a country with friendly relations with Tehran, as part of the plot, according to the ministry. Justice.
The Justice Department said the four intelligence officers reside in Iran, while the fifth suspect resides in California. The United States is unlikely to be able to detain the four in Iran given that the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.
Alinejad is perhaps best known for campaigning against Iranian rules requiring women to wear headscarves. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment from POLITICO, although on Twitter and other media she expressed shock and disbelief at the ordeal, while lambasting Iran for its abuse of his people. She has in the past expressed doubts about Biden’s efforts to revive the nuclear deal, arguing that it should take into account Iran’s poor human rights record.
Talks to revive the nuclear deal have stalled in recent weeks. Negotiators, including those from the United States and Iran speaking indirectly through European intermediaries, had met in Vienna. But after closing a sixth round of talks in June, a seventh has yet to be scheduled. Added to the uncertainty is the election of a new hard-line Iranian president who continues to build his team.
But for now, at least, the administration intends to continue pushing for additional talks, according to the US official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The official stressed that the United States “categorically condemns” the alleged Iranian plot, but he also maintained that the prosecution of the criminal case by the Department of Justice shows that Washington can simultaneously attack several objectives in this regard. which concerns the Islamic Republic.
“So yes, we intend to continue our efforts to limit Iran’s nuclear program by a return to mutual respect for [deal] while actively protecting US citizens and US interests on non-nuclear issues, ”the US official said.
After being briefed by Blinken on Wednesday, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Deputy chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that “anyone who is realistic about this knows that it will be difficult to get a good agreement”.
The 2015 Iran nuclear deal lifted a series of US and international economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for major restrictions on the country’s nuclear program. It materialized under the presidency of Barack Obama, and the negotiations involved several countries, including Russia and China.
During his presidency, Trump abandoned the deal, saying it was too narrow and time-limited. He echoed longtime opponents of the deal by saying it should have addressed other aspects of what the United States sees as malicious behavior by Iran, including its ballistic missile program and its sponsorship of terrorism.
By withdrawing from the deal, Trump reimposed old US sanctions on Iran, while adding new ones as part of a “maximum pressure” program aimed at weakening the Islamist regime in Tehran. The Iranian economy suffered, but, in defiance of the US withdrawal, the government resumed several aspects of its nuclear program. (Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, not for weapons.)
Biden has sought to reinstate the nuclear deal, but he refused to lift the sanctions until Iran complies with the deal. Biden also wants Iran to engage in further future negotiations on non-nuclear issues, as well as find a way to extend and even expand the terms of the 2015 deal.
The US official argued that since Trump abandoned the deal in 2018 and worsened the sanctions, Iran’s behavior has not improved. Tehran still sponsors militias in the Middle East that have attacked US troops, including using drones. He has not relaxed his repressive policies towards his people. Iran has even considered a plot to assassinate then-US Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks as potential retaliation for Trump’s decision to kill a senior Iranian general.
The latest allegations involving Alinejad suggest that walking away from the deal and exerting “maximum pressure” on Iran has done little to change Tehran’s calculation, the US official said.
“The simple fact is that since the United States withdrew from the [deal], none of our problems with Iran have improved – including the kind of despicable plot the Justice Department exposed yesterday, ”the US official said. “Most of our problems with Iran have worsened, starting with the now limitless advances in their nuclear program. “
Critics of the nuclear deal say that, if revived, it will strengthen Iran economically, including giving it access to tens of billions of dollars in frozen assets. Once the main terms of the deal expire in the coming years, Iran will be able to cause damage in the Middle East and beyond thanks to a stronger financial situation, critics say.
“Let the latest indictment be a warning,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior researcher at the Warmongering Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, which has long opposed the deal. “This is certainly not the time to speak frankly about removing anti-terrorism sanctions or any other sanction from the world’s leading terrorist sponsor state.”
Andrew Desiderio contributed to this report.
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