Last week, the White House told reporters of its plans to secure the release of five American citizens being held hostage by Tehran, in exchange for the release of $6 billion in funds that have been frozen due to sanctions. Shay Khatiri comments:
[T]he deal rewards the Islamic Republic for its malign behavior. Over the past few decades, the regime has frequently taken innocent foreigners as hostages, only to release them in exchange for cash, sanctions relief, or the release of Iranian criminals held in those countries. . . . The Islamic Republic’s hostage diplomacy has been so successful that other American adversaries are copying it. Russia, North Korea, and China have all kidnapped foreign citizens to get concessions from liberal democracies in recent years. This agreement will further encourage the tactic.
[Worse still, the deal] is a hint that the Biden administration has given up on stopping the Islamic Republic’s nuclear-weapons program. From $17 billion to less than $10 billion, the deal cuts the amount of Iranian money frozen by the U.S. [almost] in half, and will further establish that Biden has no stomach for a confrontation with the Islamic Republic—strengthening Tehran’s hand. Meanwhile, the administration continues to handcuff Israel to stop it from attacking Iran.
The five Americans to be released have names and faces, and we will be reminded of their stories in the days and weeks to come. But the many who will lose their freedoms and lives as a result of the regime’s hostage-taking and terrorism, [which] this deal encourages, will also be victims, and they’re likely to remain nameless and faceless. They deserve a voice—and, at minimum, an American administration that doesn’t actively incentivize the Islamic Republic’s evildoing—too.
Read more on National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/08/the-critical-flaws-in-bidens-hostage-deal-with-iran/