Before we get to the unthinkable notion of waiving another $10 billion in frozen assets for the terrorist state of Iran, let’s first revisit the obvious. Lame-duck President Joe Biden is an angry, bitter man.
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After being unceremoniously booted from his ill-fated presidential reelection campaign by his own party, the 82-year-old’s bitterness and selfishness were on full display as he appeared to intentionally muck up Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign at every opportunity.
Now it appears that Biden and his equally bitter administration are trying to do the same thing to President-elect Donald Trump, which brings us to this unbelievable — yet not, considering what I just wrote — report.
So yeah, the Biden-Harris administration renewed a controversial sanctions waiver that will allow Iran access to roughly $10 billion in electricity import payments from Iraq, according to a copy of the non-public order transmitted to Congress and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Raise your hand if you’re shocked.
Electricity import payments are charges for energy that is consumed from a grid. The payments are made through an electricity tariff and are based on the amount of energy imported. Countries import electricity when it is cheaper than generating it domestically. They export electricity when neighboring countries are willing to pay more than the domestic price.
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Here’s more, beginning with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who should, in my view, along with Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro, be sent to Trump’s (fictional) gulag after the incoming president regains the White House — but I digress (emphasis, mine).
Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined on November 8 that “it is in the national security interest of the United States” to waive mandatory economic sanctions that bar Iraq from transferring upward of $10 billion to Iran in electricity import payments.
The Biden-Harris administration has renewed the waiver repeatedly over the objections of congressional Republicans, who warned that the cash helped fuel terrorism and Iran’s war against Israel. In one case, the administration signed off on the sanctions relief one month after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
The most recent iteration of the waiver lifts sanctions for 120 days, at which time the incoming Trump administration will have to decide whether Tehran will continue receiving the relief.
So here’s the salient question: How in the whatever is unfreezing $10 billion in electricity payment for radical Islamists who continue to threaten the entire Middle East — first and foremost, Israel — “in the national security interest of the United States”? Clearly, it is not.
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The State Department confirmed last week that it had renewed the waiver.
On November 7th, the department did renew Iraq’s electricity waiver for the 23rd time since 2018. It was done so for an additional 120 days. We remain committed to reducing Iran’s malign influence in the region. Our viewpoint is that a stable, sovereign, and secure Iraq is critical to these efforts.
Call me a skeptic, but given Biden’s past miscalculations on Iran and the mad mullahs in Tehran, this latest miscalculation was more about further appeasing Iran than about the security interests of the United States.
January 20, 2025, can’t come soon enough.
