Vice President Joe Biden launched a lengthy defense of the Iran nuclear deal at a Jewish community center in Florida on Thursday, in a speech that will likely be seen as another effort to raise his profile for a White House run that he has been considering for the last few weeks.
Biden’s turn toward foreign policy followed his Wednesday speech in which he outlined a domestic policy agenda in Florida, all the while joking about the elephant in the room — whether he would run against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
On Thursday, Biden highlighted the need to “speak plainly” when discussing the complicated agreement and its ancillary protocols. He joked that he spent about 20 minutes saying things that his expert adviser didn’t write down for him because he was trying to break things down in plain English.
Jews in particular have major misgivings with the deal, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come out forcefully against it. Biden admitted at the Jewish community center that some arguments against the deal, including that unfreezing Tehran’s assets abroad will give the Islamic Republic more money to fund terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, are “totally legitimate,” but then argued that these issues shouldn’t prevent lawmakers from backing the deal.
“Joe, even if I believe you were able to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, you’re gonna give them a whole lot of money Joe boy,” he gave as an example of what he’s heard about the agreement.
However, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has to spend a good chunk of that money, estimated around $100 billion, to build schools, pave roads and take care of other neglected infrastructure because “it’s the basis of his legitimacy” for remaining in power, Biden said. He said the majority of Iranians have suffered dearly under the heavy economic sanctions the world imposed on Tehran to curb its nuclear ambitions.
Biden also stressed that the inspection regime under the agreement is “overwhelming,” and rejected reports from last month that Iran will be allowed to hold some inspections by itself.
“The answers is, it’s not self-inspection,” he said, although he declined to say more in public. Reports from August said the deal between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency will let some Iranians conduct some inspections in Parchin, and while the IAEA later rejected those reports, the deal remains confidential.
More broadly, Biden warned that America’s reputation is on the line if Congress refuses to sign off on the deal.
“I’ve been doing foreign policy for 42 years,” he said, and added that and can’t think of another time when U.S. foreign policy “has been so strained because of dysfunction.” He asked the audience to image how other leaders would view Obama if Congress were to reject the deal.
“The president can’t deliver on an agreement that the world thinks is important?” he asked. If that happens, Biden said it would make it harder for the U.S. to get European leaders to live up to their commitment to donate 2 percent of their nations’ GDPs to NATO, or continue sanctioning Russia for annexing Crimea, or curb Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, he said.
Biden sounded professorial as he gave a short history lesson of the 1970 non-proliferation treaty that is the basis for the Iran deal.
The treaty never said that countries couldn’t have nuclear reactors or pursue nuclear energy programs, Biden said. Nuclear energy is permissible for countries that “behave appropriately” under the landmark agreement aimed at limiting the number of countries with nuclear weapons, Biden said.
He also said that he doesn’t “blame opponents for the ads they’re using — I’m used to political ads.” But he said claims that international inspectors will not have access to all facilities, including military ones, are false.
In fact, inspectors will for the first time follow the entire chain, from when uranium is mined all the way to the reactors, Biden said.
As to Russia’s intentions, or willingness to enforce the agreement if Tehran breaches it, Biden said President Vladimir Putin will support the other five nations that brokered the deal because it is in his best interest.
“Moscow has more problems with radical Islam than we have,” Biden said. Russia is not cooperating “because they like us” but “because they’re worried” about a nuclear Iran too.
