The United States is rightly pressuring allies, partners, and adversaries alike to take robust action in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many are listening. Even China has at least qualified its public support for Russia, fearing the loss of valued trade and political relationships in Europe.
Yet the Biden administration doesn’t seem to care that certain nations, friend and foe, keep happily snuggling up to Moscow.
In the case of India, which has refused to join international sanctions imposed on Russia, there is at least an understandable reluctance to retaliate. Although New Delhi has defended Moscow’s international legitimacy and abstained or voted in Russia’s favor on important votes in the United Nations, the Biden administration has reasons not to overplay its hand and risk losing Indian cooperation against China.
However, no such rationale exists concerning Iran. And this makes all the more pathetic Biden’s desperate attempts to restore the Iran nuclear deal at any cost.
The Islamic Republic’s leaders are laughing at Biden. In recent days, Iran has voted against Russia’s expulsion from the U.N. Human Rights Council. It has pledged to strengthen its economic ties with Moscow, even as Russian atrocities are broadcast. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s state media also suggest that Iran will honor Russia’s demand to purchase Russian oil with rubles — a symbolic and practical tip of the hat to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Put simply, as Biden seeks to align the international community against the outrage occurring in Ukraine, he is nonetheless rewarding Iran for proudly standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the architect of the atrocities.
At the very least, Biden should be calling out Iran for its complicity in cruelty. A more serious response would involve sanctioning all Iranian companies and persons engaged in dealings with Russia. Instead, the president holds his tongue. That’s because his desire to reach a nuclear accord with Iran supersedes all moral and practical considerations. As outraged as Biden claims to be by Russia’s actions in Ukraine, they are apparently not bad enough to hold the hostile nation of Iran accountable for its complicity therein.
Numerous U.S. negotiators have quit the delegation conducting negotiations with Iran in Vienna, apparently in disagreement with Biden’s inordinately conciliatory posture. But Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Biden remain unmoved. They have repeatedly extended the deadline for Iran to reach a deal. The scale of this American submission is astonishing. As the Washington Examiner has reported, Biden administration officials refuse even to bring charges against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps assassins who have plotted to kill former national security adviser John Bolton.
Pushback in Washington is growing. Testifying before Congress this week, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley broke with the White House talking points and stated his opposition to Biden’s insane plan to delist the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. Yes, the Biden administration is considering accepting this Iranian demand as the price for restoring a nuclear agreement that is already far too generous to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
A bipartisan coalition in Congress believes that the administration is giving Iran far too much and getting a precious nothing in return. If the old nuclear deal or some version of it is restored, expect major resistance on Capitol Hill that will only grow if Republicans take back control of Congress in November.
What Russia is doing in Ukraine is an outrage that demands universal condemnation. It’s one thing to excuse a friendly country such as India for failing to join in due to complicated diplomatic considerations. But for a sworn enemy like Iran (not a democracy, not a major trading partner, and not a counterbalance against China), Biden has no business extending this free pass.
