Another Very Bad Deal with Iran Is on the Horizon https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/politics-current-affairs/2022/08/another-very-bad-deal-with-iran-is-on-the-horizon/

August 26, 2022 | Danielle Pletka
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On August 15, Iranian proxy forces in Iraq launched a drone attack on a U.S. base in Syria. There also appears to have been an attempted drone attack on American forces in the region by Iranian affiliates on Tuesday. Despite responding to these provocations with force, Washington still appears on track to approve a revived version of the 2015 nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Danielle Pletka comments:

Per official Iranian news sources, . . . the Biden administration agreed to specific measures to propitiate the Tehran regime. Among them: lifting sanctions on most (if not all) Iranian banks; release of at least $7 billion in Iranian funds now frozen in South Korean banks; across-the-board sanctions relief for organizations including the supreme leader’s massive slush fund; . . . rapid oil sales for a mass cash infusion (about $4 billion); and an exemption to sanctions on foreign companies should the U.S. once again pull out of the JCPOA.

The curious may wonder what it is that the United States, the Europeans, Russia, and China will get out of this deal. For the United States and those European countries concerned about Iran’s malign intentions, a “return” to “compliance” with the JCPOA will be nearly moot, as the agreement’s vaunted restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities will begin to expire in a mere year and a half, and almost all will lapse by the end of this decade. At that point Iran will be fully within its rights under the agreement to do all the things that the Biden administration tells us today it is too risky to permit Iran to do.

There will supposedly be an exchange of hostages. There will not be any end to Iranian efforts to “avenge” the killing of Quds Force leader Qassem Suleimani, which means no end of efforts to murder former President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and other former senior officials.

For the Russians and the Chinese, there is another story entirely. These two adversaries of the United States stand to gain a great deal.

Read more on Dispatch: https://thedispatch.com/p/on-the-precipice-of-a-very-bad-iran