October 28, 2023

In 2012, then-president Barack Obama announced new U.S. sanctions against foreign banks that helped Iran sell its oil.  He said the sanctions would increase pressure on Iran for failing to meet its international nuclear obligations.  “If the Iranian government continues its defiance, there should be no doubt that the United States and our partners will continue to impose increasing consequences.”

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Sanctions on Iran played well in the MSM.

In 2013 in Jerusalem, Obama spoke about Israel’s security.  He told Israelis, “Strong and principled diplomacy is the best way to ensure that the Iranian government forsakes nuclear weapons. … And I have made the position of the United States of America clear: Iran must not get a nuclear weapon. … America will do what we must to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.”  Obama had said in 2012 that the U.S. will “always have Israel’s back” and called Israel one of America’s “greatest allies,” saying the bond between the two nations was “unbreakable.”

However, Obama spewed empty words.  Disregarding what he said about Israeli security and having its back, Obama “implemented” (he circumvented the U.S. Constitution to do so) in 2015 the Iran nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).  Under it, the U.S. suspended sanctions on the sale of oil and trade, and other financial sanctions, which had crippled Iran’s economy.  In return, Iran agreed to scale back its nuclear program (it did not).  The JCPOA’s critics said it was flawed because it didn’t halt all Iranian nuclear activity.  Iran also got relief from E.U. and U.N. sanctions and was granted access to frozen assets.  The JCPOA infused Iran with cash.  By lifting oil and financial sanctions on Iran, billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian assets, mostly revenues from oil sales, were unfrozen.  Its central bank gained control over more than $120 billion in foreign exchange reserves.  Besides, Iran never fully complied with the JCPOA and repeatedly reneged on nuclear nonproliferation obligations it agreed upon.

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The JCPOA was Obama’s primary foreign policy initiative.

In what has to be two of Obama’s most severe slaps in Israel’s face, he refused in December 2016 to sign a renewal of sanctions against Iran.  Perhaps he knew that the sanctions would become law anyway, but the symbolism of what he didn’t do was unforgivable.

Then, with his 2012 election behind him, with a month to go as president, no longer needing to fool Jews or Gentiles again, despite what he had said about always having Israel’s back, Obama slipped a knife into Israel’s back.  He abstained (via his ambassador) from voting and thus allowed a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned Israel over settlements to pass.  He pretended the resolution was simply a restatement of longstanding U.S. opposition to Israeli settlements.

These are only two of a string of insults Obama foisted on one of America’s closest allies.

As if Obama’s insults weren’t bad enough, the U.S. government, in 2018, traced some of the $1.7 billion Iran had gained access to, courtesy of the Obama administration, to Iranian-backed terrorists.  Iran used the cash to pay its primary proxies, the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezb’allah and the Quds Force, Iran’s main foreign intelligence and covert action arm and part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Alex Titus wrote in 2018 about Obama’s Iran policy: “America’s failed policy of appeasing the Iranian regime is over.”  It seems Titus was incorrect.  Obama’s keen iterest in achieving an understanding  with Iran wasn’t over.  The bumbling idiot who currently occupies the Bully Pulpit has seized Obama’s Iran baton.  What Joe Biden has essentially done is created Obama’s “third term,” extending Obama’s appeasement of Iran.