As the Islamic Republic is rapidly becoming a nuclear power, US President Joe Biden arrived in Israel last Wednesday for a three-day visit. The Iran nuclear program was at the top of Israeli officials’ agenda for talks with President Biden. The president made an American return to the failing nuclear deal, the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, from which then-President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018, a main priority as he entered office.
In a Washington Post op-ed, President Biden attacked the previous US administration for abandoning the nuclear deal with Iran and wrote: "My administration will continue to increase diplomatic and economic pressure until Iran is ready to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, as I remain prepared to do.”
President Biden is committed to returning to the nuclear deal with Iran – a deal that saw the Obama Administration send $100 billion to Iran, including a C-130 Hercules carrying $400 million in cash on January 16, 2016, as CNN reported. The Islamist regime then used that money to wage massively destabilizing wars in the Gaza Strip, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and elsewhere.
This 2015 nuclear deal clearly benefited the Islamic Republic and left the door open for Iran to secretly continue with its nuclear ambitions. In other words, it was a terrible deal. President Biden must understand that no new deal will ever change the mullahs’ behavior.
Western nations must all come to grips with the reality and the nature of the Islamic regime in Iran. One definition of insanity, sometimes erroneously attributed to Albert Einstein, is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. When individuals make mistakes, the consequences are limited. But when nations make mistakes, the results can be catastrophic. It is disheartening to see the world’s best hope for freedom and democracy, the United States of America, repeatedly making the same mistakes with respect to the Iranian regime.
President Biden, much like President Barack Obama, seems to believe that he is dealing with a group of rational pragmatic people with whom he can do business. A sort of give-and-take type of people who can find a middle ground on any deal. The mullahs are hardly the type. They are religious fanatics to their very core who are driven — now that they are in power and sit on a sea of black gold — by their deadly messianic dream to rule the world by whatever means to set the world straight in accordance with the idealized Shia Islamic vision.
In dealing with the ever-cheating and devious mullahs, the Biden Administration needs to realize that the mullahs are superb experts in the art of cheating. They know that weak-willed Westerners feel productive when they “talk,” and engage in “negotiations.” These activities do nothing; but then again, accomplishing anything other than advancing their own careers and generating an undeserved sense of self-importance is never the goal of pinheaded diplomats.
The Iran situation is dire indeed. The “Iran problem” is now a world problem. The question is, what to do about Iran? It is worse than appeasement to negotiate a "deal" with the Iranian theocrats because any deal struck with these mullahs is only another ruse for them to further their own plans.
Alternatives
Sanctions must be instituted immediately with great selectivity and care to achieve a speedy change of regime. The following are some possible actions suggested for consideration:
• Enforce the UN sanctions by inspecting every vessel headed for Iranian ports to make sure they are not ferrying prohibited material. Other than vessels known to be carrying foodstuffs and medicine, each ship should be subjected to elaborate inspection.
• Stop or slow down Iran’s import of refined petroleum products. Take all necessary steps to stop foreign investments in Iran. Pressure governments to stop doing business with the terrorist Islamic Republic regime in Iran.
• Cease or freeze all assets of the past and present officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran abroad on the legal ground that they are stolen funds from the Iranian nation and make their release conditional on the review of impartial international tribunals.
• Project a massive information campaign into Iran, by radio, television, print media, and the Internet telling the people that the sanctions are necessitated by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s intransigence in refusing to abandon its drive to acquire a nuclear arsenal.
• Declare unequivocally the commitment to respect the territorial integrity of Iran, as well as the rights of the Iranians to decide, through a democratic process, all matters pertaining to their life and country.
• Initiate, without delay or equivocation, a comprehensive program of assistance to all democratic Iranian opposition groups, both within as well as outside of Iran, in their struggle to accomplish the regime change themselves. Declare and treat the clerical regime as illegitimate.
In short, Iran's mullahs must never be allowed to acquire a delivery system to carry their nuclear bomb. The people of Iran wish nothing less than a complete regime change through the democratic process of a free referendum. They believe it is the surest, safest and fastest way to achieve a democratic Iran and end the world’s nightmare of nuclear holocaust that is currently confronting us all.
Dr. Iman Foroutan is chairman of the Board of Trustees and executive director of The New Iran.