The Trump Administration withdrew from Obama’s nuclear deal and imposed heavy sanctions on the Iranian regime, depriving them of $200 billion they could have spent on terrorism. In 2020, at the height of the Trump Administration’s Maximum Pressure Campaign, Iran only exported $6.6 billion worth of oil to China. In 2022, Iran exported around $30 billion of oil. Those funds go to kill Iranian protesters, fund terror groups, and strengthen Iran’s military.
The Biden Administration has completely failed to uphold U.S. law and enforce sanctions on Iran – particularly against its export of oil that fuels the regime’s war and terror machine. We need to maintain sanctions on Iran until they sign a strong deal that prevents them from ever getting a nuclear weapon.
Biden has looked the other way as Iran has sold its terror oil around the world and refused to sanction the regime. Those oil sales fund terrorism that is used to kill Americans. Since October 7, 2023, alone, the Iranian regime and its terror proxies have attacked U.S. forces, bases, and assets at least 170 times. This administration has only responded a handful of times.
Here are just a few of the many actions the Biden took that encouraged Iranian aggression:
- February 18, 2021: President Biden unilaterally removes travel restrictions against Iranian “diplomats” in New York City and cancels UN sanctions against Iran. This decision allowed Iran to legally buy and sell tanks, planes, and submarines, and dangerous weapons across the globe. There was no Iranian concession in return.
- June 2021: Biden officials engaged in “indirect talks” with the Iranian regime in Vienna, agreeing to talks with intermediaries instead of meeting in person, signaling a desperation for a deal, and showing weakness by agreeing to Iranian negotiating posture.
- January 2022: On the eve of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden Administration grants eight waivers for cooperation with Iran’s nuclear program, permitting a $10 billion nuclear deal between Iran and Russia to proceed.
- March 2022: The Biden administration offers enormous policy concessions, including lifting terror sanctions from the Central Bank of Iran and its oil export industries as well as against senior terror leaders in exchange for Iran’s return to the JCPOA. Biden even contemplates lifting the terrorist designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
- July 2022: The administration fails to respond forcefully to Iranian drone attacks on U.S. forces in the region. The inaction signals the administration’s reluctance to confront Iranian aggression and attacks.
- January 2023: The IAEA finds Iran enriched uranium up to 83.7 percent purity, but the Biden Administration refuses to censure Iran at the IAEA’s Board of Governors Meeting.
- August 2023: Biden administration officials admit they have secretly allowed Iran to export oil to China without sanctions, looking the other way to facilitate a secret hostage deal.
- September 2023: The Biden Administration engages in the most expensive hostage payment in history, releasing five Iranian nationals convicted in U.S. courts and unfreezing $6 billion in assets in exchange for five U.S. hostages, rewarding Iran’s hostage taking and encouraging Hamas to believe it can negotiate handsome concessions for the release of hostages.
- October 2023: Iran’s oil exports rise, despite sanctions – The administration’s poor enforcement of sanctions allows Iran to strengthen its economy and support militant groups, such as Hamas, which recently escalated attacks on Israel.
- May 2024: The State Department issues “official condolences” for the death of President Raisi and Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash. Subsequently, Biden’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood stands to honor them for a moment of silence.
- May 2024: The Biden Administration presses European allies not to rebuke Iran for advances in its nuclear program and urges against an IAEA censure resolution.