By Gabriel Toole | May 20, 2022

As negotiations between Iran and the West continue over Iran’s accelerating nuclear program, opponents of the deal have voiced their concern over the huge financial relief Iran stands to gain in return for limited concessions. Although sanction relief for Iran would indeed be necessary in order to finalize a nuclear agreement, this sanction relief is a double-edged sword and should be carefully considered based on the specific costs and rewards of any future agreement.

Any sanction relief Iran experiences in return for reducing its nuclear program will allow it to strengthen its proxy organizations and deepen its nefarious networks across the globe. In all, Iran spends billions of dollars annually through military and financial support to its network of proxy organizations in the Middle East. The most notable of these networks are well known and exist in and around Israel. Iran is estimated to provide $700 million USD annually to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and $100 million annually to terror groups in Gaza. In Syria, Iranian military support is thought to total $20-30 billion dollars. In Iraq, Iran continues to support large Shia militias and in Yemen, Iran provides the Houthis with tens of millions of dollars, including advanced arms transfers such as ballistic missiles, anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMS) and drone technology.

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Richard Goldberg is a senior advisor at FDD. From 2019-2020, Richard served as the Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the White House National Security Council. He previously served as chief of staff for Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and deputy chief of staff and senior foreign policy adviser to former U.S. Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois in both the U.S. House and Senate.

As a staff associate for the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations, Richard worked on a wide range of issues related to U.S. foreign assistance, including foreign military financing, international security assistance, international peacekeeping, development, global health and economic support funds. He was a founding staff director of the House U.S.-China Working Group and was among the first Americans ever to visit China’s human space launch center. A leader in efforts to expand U.S. missile defense cooperation with Israel, Richard played a key role in U.S. funding for the Arrow-3 program, Iron Dome and the deployment of an advanced missile defense radar to the Negev Desert.

In the Senate, Richard emerged as a leading architect of the toughest sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was the lead Republican negotiator for three rounds of sanctions targeting the Central Bank of Iran, the SWIFT financial messaging service, and entire sectors of the Iranian economy. Richard also drafted and negotiated legislation promoting human rights and democracy in Iran, including sanctions targeting entities that provide the Iranian regime with the tools of repression. His Iran sanctions work was featured in the book The Iran Wars.

As the governor’s chief of staff, Richard managed government in America’s fifth-largest state with oversight of all day-to-day operations, including homeland security, public safety, and public health. He also spearheaded the first-ever state legislation to divest public pension funds from companies engaged in boycotts of Israel, which sparked a nationwide initiative in state capitols around America.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus is a lawyer and journalist who grew up in the Catskill Mountains and now lives in a Philly suburb. Lori and her husband have strong ties to Israel, with a home in Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital, and she serves on the Board of Trustees of Ariel University. Two of Lori’s four children and one son-in-law served in the IDF and three of her children spent gap years in Israel.

Lori served for many years on the board of the Hillel of Greater Philadelphia, as a member of the Israel Campus Coalition, as a board member and then president of the Greater Philadelphia District of the Zionist Organization of America and on the Israel and Overseas Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. In addition to being a litigator at a major Philadelphia law firm after graduating from Harvard Law School, Lori also taught and co-created courses in law school and other graduate schools including the University of Pennsylvania and at Bryn Mawr College. In 2009, Lori founded the international Zionist organization Z STREET, on behalf of which she successfully sued the IRS after it refused to consider Z STREET’s application for tax exempt status in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Currently a partner in a small litigation boutique, Lori is also the legal director and a litigator with The Deborah Project, a non-profit law firm that represents those who have been discriminated against in educational settings because they are Jewish and/or pro-Israel. Lori’s news articles, which focus on Israel, the greater Middle East and the Jewish Diaspora, have appeared in local, national and international news outlets including The Wall Street Journal.