From: https://tinyurl.com/ynya6dp7 (dailysignal.com)

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Biden's Hostage Deal Would Boost Iran's Threats

James Phillips / August 22, 2023

The Biden administration reportedly has reached a deal to free five
Iranian-American hostages held by Iran, in what may be the prelude to an
even worse agreement on Iran's nuclear program.

Under the reported deal, the United States would secure the five hostages'
release by releasing an unknown number of Iranian agents or sanctions
violators held in U.S. jails and at least $6 billion of Iranian assets
frozen by South Korea.

The hostage deal is dangerous because it would reward Iran's implacably
hostile regime for seizing American citizens and incentivize Tehran and
other outlaw regimes to take more hostages.

Even worse, the $6 billion ransom paid for the hostages also would be a
down payment for the emerging "informal, unwritten agreement" that
President Joe Biden naively hopes will defuse growing tensions over Iran's
nuclear advances, at least until after the 2024 presidential election.

Biden's State Department already has quietly granted backdoor sanctions
relief to Iran by allowing Iraq to transfer $2.76 billion to Tehran to pay
for energy imports.

The Biden administration also has relaxed the enforcement of sanctions and
turned a blind eye to Iran's illicit oil exports to China and other
destinations. Iran now exports 1.5 million barrels of oil a day to China,
the highest figure since 2013.

Bolstering a Dictatorship

If the emerging new deal follows this trajectory of accommodation and
appeasement, the net effect will be to bolster Iran's embattled
dictatorship, fill its coffers with billions of dollars in sanctions
relief, empower it to violently repress its own people and boost the
threat posed by its missiles, drones, proxy groups, and even its nuclear
program.

The backroom deal would do nothing to address the dangers of Iran's
accelerating uranium enrichment efforts, ballistic missile advances, and
state-sponsored terrorism. It essentially would be a bribe meant to buy a
little quiet and kick the can down the road until after the U.S.
presidential election.

Under the proposed understanding, which Iranian officials described as a
"political cease-fire," Iran would agree not to enrich uranium beyond 60%
purity. Iran supposably also would halt proxy attacks on American forces
in Syria and Iraq, expand cooperation with international nuclear
inspectors, and refrain from selling ballistic missiles and weaponized
drones to Russia.

However, Iran would not have to reduce its enriched uranium stockpile,
estimated by the International Atomic Energy Agency to be 4,385 kilograms
at varying levels of purity, far above the 300-kilogram limit set by the
2015 nuclear agreement.

In return, the United States is expected to relax sanctions that have
hamstrung Iran's economy, refrain from seizing foreign tankers
transporting illicit Iranian oil exports, and rule out punitive
resolutions at the United Nations or the International Atomic Energy
Agency concerning Iran's noncompliance with its commitments to nuclear
nonproliferation.

In sum, the Biden administration is considering waiving approximately $20
billion in sanctions against Tehran in exchange for limited, temporary,
and easily reversed symbolic actions by Iran.

Blinking Red Lights

Emerging details of the proposed deal have triggered alarms over several
aspects of the negotiations.

First, rather than the "longer and stronger" nuclear deal promised by the
Biden administration when it came into office, the resulting agreement
would be nonbinding, weaker than the previous deal, and easily discarded
at Tehran's convenience.

Secondly, the Biden administration appears ready to attempt an illegal end
run around Congress by granting Tehran sanctions relief without allowing
the lawmakers to review an agreement, as stipulated by the Iran Nuclear
Agreement Review Act, the 2015 law that requires the president to submit
such an arrangement to Congress.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, wrote a June 15 letter to Biden warning about the need for
congressional oversight: "I urge the administration to remember that U.S.
law requires that any agreement, arrangement, or understanding with Iran
needs to be submitted to Congress pursuant to INARA [the Iran Nuclear
Agreement Review Act]."

Iran's radical regime is not likely to be appeased by the billions of
dollars offered by Biden, any more than it was by the ransom offered by
the Obama administration when Biden was vice president.

In January 2016, when the nuclear deal first was implemented, the Obama
administration secured the release of four Americans, in part by releasing
seven jailed Iranians and transferring $400 million in cash to Iran.
Tehran later seized more hostages.

Although the State Department initially denied that there was any link
between the payment and the release of prisoners, a spokesman later
admitted that the payments were used as "leverage" to ensure that the
Americans would be released.

If the Biden-era hostage deal is another effort to coax the predatory
regime in Tehran into a nuclear agreement through a thinly disguised
ransom payment, it would greatly undermine U.S. security interests,
encourage more hostage-taking, and expose American citizens to greater
risks.

Risky Bet on Restraint

The Biden administration appears to be on the verge of concluding a
legally nonbinding agreement in principle with a ruthless regime that has
no principles except to maintain itself in power and export its Islamist
revolution.

What is emerging from more than two years of negotiations is another bad
nuclear deal pursued by a complacent administration succumbing to wishful
thinking about appeasing Iran's implacably hostile dictatorship.

Rather than resulting in an effective resolution to Iran's nuclear
challenge and continued terrorist attacks on U.S. troops, partners, and
allies in the region, not to mention increasing activity in the Western
Hemisphere, the emerging deal would reward the aggressive regime in Tehran
with billions of dollars of sanctions relief that only will embolden it
and enable future aggression.

Such appeasement will undermine long-term U.S. national security
interests, not advance them. If Biden is determined to go down this path,
Congress will need to act to defend the United States.
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