July 15, 2021
On the evening of July 13, the State Department issued a waiver to allow Iran access to funds previously frozen by the Trump administration, specifically funds held in banks in Japan and South Korea. The waiver, signed by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, states: “Allowing these funds to be used to repay exporters in these jurisdictions will make those entities whole with respect to the goods and services they exported to Iran, address a recurring irritant in important bilateral relationships, and decrease Iran’s foreign reserves.”
The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy strongly opposes this move.
“The Biden administration’s reasoning defies credulity,” said AMCD co-chair Tom Harb. “There is something incredibly naïve and dangerous about this unjustified bail out, as though they are being willfully blind to the fanatical reality of the Islamic Republic.”
“The Biden Administration is giving the regime everything it wants on the front end – even before negotiations begin in earnest,” added AMCD co-chair John Hajjar. “And to do it on the same day it was announced that the regime attempted to kidnap dissident Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad from her home in Brooklyn is outrageous! Furthermore, Iranian-controlled militia are already stepping up attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria. What is the President Biden going to do about that?”
“The Biden administration is playing a very dangerous game,” offered AMCD co-chair and Iranian American, Hossein Khorram. “A strong position was handed to them by the Trump administration and they seem determined to squander it. In fact, President Biden has brought appeasing the tyrannical Islamic regime to dangerously high levels by rewarding it with sanctions relief for causing death and destruction. The administration claims to support human rights, but turned a blind eye as the Islamic regime tortured thousands of Iranians demanding their civil rights. The Islamic regime supplied weapons and training to terror groups which resulted in the death of over 1000 U.S. Servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan. It instructed its proxy, Hamas, to fire over 4000 rockets into Israel. It caused the death of 400,000 Syrians and generated nearly 6 million Syrian refugees by supporting the criminal Assad regime. It has caused over 233,000 deaths in war and famine in Yemen. It has caused billions in damage to its neighbors such as its drone attacks on the Saudi refinery and finally, this week an Islamic regime’s senior Revolutionary Guard commander urged Iraqi Shi’ite militias to step up attacks on U.S. targets.”
Khorram went on to say, “Appeasing such a bad reginal actor in the hope of causing a change in its nuclear weapons pursuit is not just naïve, but foolish. President Biden should not invest in the stability of the Islamic regime, but support the Iranian people demanding an end to these atrocities. If the regime succeeds in its quest for a nuclear bomb and regional hegemony, future historians will not look kindly on Secretary Blinken and the Biden Administration.”