On 5/25/2022, U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioned Mr. Robert Malley, special envoy for Iran at State, at a full committee hearing on JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) negotiations and U.S. policy on Iran moving forward. Risch points out that the Biden administration came to office raising hopes for a, quote, “longer and stronger” deal with Iran, “Turning to your point about former president Trump got out of the JCPOA and my gosh all these terrible things happened. Well what are you guys doing about it? If that wasn’t the answer what are you doing about it? You came in and said don’t worry we’re going to have an agreement that is longer and stronger. That train has left the station a long time ago. It isn’t longer and it isn’t stronger and it doesn’t even exist. In fact what we’re hearing about is it will be shorter and weaker if indeed you do wind up getting into an agreement which I for one certainly hope that you don’t”
“what’s your plan? As the chairman said I don’t know what the policy is you keep sitting at the table and you keep negotiating how long is this going to go on?” Risch demanded of the often slow-moving, off and on talks. “we are prepared to get back into the JCPOA for as long as our assessment is that its nonproliferation benefits are worth the sanctions relief,” Malley responded.
Risch drew attention to Iran’s oil sales to China and underlined that the USA has to impose sanctions not only against Iranian institutions and organizations but also against China if it really wants to prevent this trade. Risch discounted Biden’s continuation and expansion of U.S. sanctions on Iran, demanding additional action to cut off China’s imports of Iranian oil. “Every day things seem to get better for Iran, even though you keep putting these sanctions on,” asserted Risch, who claimed that existing sanctions are “toothless.” “When are you going to end (the talks)? When are you going to walk?” said Risch, he called the deal “fatally flawed” from the start in showing it was impossible to separate Iran’s nuclear program from its other “malign” activities.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat, openly reprimanded the Biden administration for miscalculating Iran’s posture and specifically misjudging the extent to which Iranian negotiators would be willing to return to the 2015 deal on terms that could be acceptable to the United States. “Iran has dragged out this process, driving up its demands and exerting its leverage, convincing the world that the United States wants the JCPOA more than the Iranian regime does. After months of negotiations, this is the Iran we must contend with, not the Iran you hoped would be driven by practical considerations at the bargaining table. Today’s Iran is buoyed by China, who, it is reported, just in April imported 650,000 barrels a day of oil from Iran. Oil which should be subject to U.S. sanctions. Even at discounted prices, this has resulted in a flood of cash for the regime – tens of millions of dollars per day.”
Biden has made a priority of returning the U.S. and Iran to the nuclear pact, abandoning what his administration says was a failed get-tough strategy by President Donald Trump.
Risch, the senior Republican on the committee, echoed Chariman Menendez’s complaint about the continuation of the talks. “Talks remain stalled, and it’s clear the Iranian regime is negotiating in bad faith as it always does,” he said in his own opening statement. “And while it continues to levy unreasonable demands to re-enter the nuclear deal, instead of prolonging this period of uncertainty, it’s long past time the administration end negotiations and implement a more holistic Iran policy.”
Malley acknowledged, in his exchange with Risch, that the administration had allowed Iran to prolong the talks beyond the time frame set by senior U.S. officials. “I apologize — it’s true that we’ve said things in the past,” he replied when Risch pressed to know when the U.S. could abandon the negotiations. “What has always been our guiding star is what are the nonproliferation benefits that our experts tell us and the intelligence community tells us. But again, being at the table doesn’t mean we’re waiting.”
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Iran JCPOA: What’s your plan? Not longer, not stronger & it doesn’t even exist. China Iran 650K barrels oil per day.