Secretary of State Blinken and President Biden have repeatedly reassured the American people that they would only return to the Iran deal after it’s strengthened and Iran stopped all activities in clear violation of the deal. The Iranians admit to having violated the deal by having more enriched uranium than the JCPOA permits, having started using advanced centrifuges, and having restricted the inspections that are required. None of the signers of the JCPOA have instituted any additional sanctions on Iran for these admitted violations. In addition, the covert Israeli secret raid on their nuclear archives in 2018 proved that Iran had been engaged in undeclared secret nuclear weapons research continuously since 2003. Nuclear residue found to be present in the warehouse shows that unannounced enrichment was taking place at secret, undeclared sites.
We know Iran has been cheating, even though the JCPOA will allow them to breakout to having nuclear weapons when the deal soon sunsets, even without any cheating. Amazingly, the Biden administration and our European ‘allies’ are so interested in returning financial advantages to Iran that they are overlooking actual cheating. Satellite images released in the last month show a new secret ballistic missile launch facility in central Iran, near the city of Isfahan. Incredibly, this appears to have had no impact on the Biden administration’s eagerness to reenter a grossly flawed nuclear agreement with Iran.
The U. S. Congress is not powerless in this matter. The law passed in 2015 requires that the removal of sanctions be approved by Congress. Any agreement made with another country must be ratified by the Senate—according to the Constitution—to be considered binding on the United States. Even under the JCPOA, we were entitled to have sanctions on Iran because of their abysmal human rights record, and to punish Iran for their continuing terrorist activity, and to stop weapons proliferation. Shamefully, the Obama administration removed sanctions as “goodwill gestures” in these areas, and there is every reason to believe President Biden is seeking to repeat that dangerous action. Unfortunately, all of the senior appointees in the State Department are veterans of the Obama administration, and none appear to be willing to admit the mistakes that we made in 2015 will be even more damaging to national security today.
Silence by pro-Israel and pro-American lawmakers in the face of this apparent capitulation dare not be tolerated. ZOA stands for both American and Israeli security and says no to sanctions relief and policies and actions which may well lead to an Islamic Republic of Iran nuclear holocaust.
