The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued a gloomy report last week about the rapid advancement Iran has made in its nuclear weapon program. Iran’s progress directly results from the Biden administration’s foreign policy failures.
According to the IAEA’s May report, Iran’s overall stockpile of enriched uranium increased by 1,489.8 pounds since the agency’s last report in February. The nation now has 13,671.5 pounds of enriched uranium, exceeding the 661 pounds stockpile limit that Iran had agreed to in the 2015 nuclear deal. What’s also shocking is that Iran’s stockpile includes 313.2 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60 percent.
“Around 42 kilograms (92.5 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 percent is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible — if the material is enriched further to weapons-grade levels of 90 percent,” according to Politico.
The IAEA’s latest report shows that the Obama/Biden team’s faith in curtailing Iran’s nuclear ambition through diplomatic negotiation is misplaced because Iran has no interest in abiding by any international agreement. It also shows that Iran is well on its way to developing nuclear weapons, probably sooner rather than later.
Furthermore, since Iran never let the IAEA thoroughly inspect its nuclear program and has barred IAEA inspectors completely since September 2023, Iran’s actual stockpile of enriched uranium is likely higher than the figures IAEA reported. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the IAEA chief, warned that Iran has enough enriched uranium to make “several” nuclear bombs.
Iran has been able to make such significant advancements in its nuclear program thanks to the Biden administration. Before Joe Biden became president, Iran’s economy struggled under heavy economic sanctions imposed by the Trump administration after the U.S. withdrew from the ineffective 2015 nuclear deal. The Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” sanctions cost Iran at least $200 billion in oil revenue, and it had to cut its military spending and handouts to its militant proxies. Political leaders in the Middle East widely praised the Trump administration’s policy on Iran as the only approach that had worked in curtailing Iran’s belligerence.
Policy of Appeasement
But as soon as Biden came into office, he replaced the Trump administration’s maximum pressure policy toward Iran with his maximum appeasement policy. The Biden administration let it be known that one of its highest priorities in foreign policy was to revive the nuclear negotiation with Iran, insisting a deal would make the world safer. To win over the mullahs, the Biden administration has kept throwing Iran one lifeline after another.
For example, Iran reportedly has made $100 billion in revenue from its oil exports since Biden took office because Biden refuses to enforce the Trump administration’s oil sanctions on Iran. The Biden administration also let Iran access $6 billion from its unfrozen assets. Team Biden was foolish to believe that Iran would use the proceeds solely for “humanitarian purposes.”
The Iranian regime, flush with cash, has been able to fund its proxies to cause serious harm to the U.S. military, allies, and international commerce. For instance, Hamas launched the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel. Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to use Iranian-supplied missiles and drones to attack civilian and military targets across the Middle East and to terrorize international shipping in the Red Sea. Early this year, a drone attack launched by Iran-backed militants killed three U.S. service members and injured at least 25 others in a U.S. military base in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border. Only a few weeks ago, the Middle East got dangerously close to a full-out war as Iran launched its first-ever direct missile attack against Israel.
Prioritizing the Election over Security
Now we know that the influx of cash has also enabled Iran to make significant progress on its nuclear program during President Biden’s first term. The world is a far less safe place today due to President Biden’s foreign policy failures.
What’s more depressing is that Team Biden has demonstrated they are incapable and unwilling to learn from their policy failures and change their course of action. They are so power-hungry that they have prioritized how to stay in power for four more years over how to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration, wanting to focus on the upcoming November election, has pressured European allies to back off plans to criticize Iran for advances in its nuclear program. European allies are “frustrated over what they see as U.S. efforts to undermine their approach,” the Journal reports. They are deeply concerned that the Biden administration “lacks a strategy for dealing with Iran’s nuclear advances” and “appears unwilling to either pursue a serious diplomatic effort with Iran or take punitive actions against Tehran’s nuclear transgressions.” The Journal editorial board warned that “while Mr. Biden stalls until November, Tehran won’t. Expect the pace of enrichment to continue.”
Iran has made it clear that it regards Israel and the United States as its mortal enemies. The fanatic mullahs will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons either directly or indirectly through proxies to seek the destruction of Israel and the United States. An Iran possessing nuclear weapons will be Biden’s biggest foreign policy blunder and the world’s worst nightmare.