“Biden” Admin Waives Sanctions on Iranian Oil Trade As DOJ Announces Charges On Spy Network

The Biden Administration fails to understand that when you appease brutal and tyrannical regimes they won’t make nice. They will only get worse. The deal that will be eventually signed by the Biden Administration and Iran will be an awful one. The Middle East is going to become a much more dangerous place in the next 3.5 years

Related – Why is Biden bent on appeasing Iran — even as it masterminds American deaths? 

Related – Biden’s Iran Appeasement is Dangerous

Related – The media can’t cover for Joe Biden’s “Gong Show” administration indefinitely 

Remarkable how Joe Biden will stop at nothing – not even Iranian plots to kidnap American citizens – to give away billions of dollars to the Ayatollah. https://t.co/V9d133nyUf

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 14, 2021

The waiver, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, allows the "transfer of Iranian funds in restricted accounts to exporters in Japan and the Republic of Korea." https://t.co/a1zPeJUmcW

— RJC (@RJC) July 14, 2021

Rewrite: Even as the U.S. remains willing to release tens of billions of dollars to the IRGC, we will not hesitate to remove them as a foreign terrorist organization so they can continue their murderous abuses of our citizens. https://t.co/kAaoPcleud

— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) July 14, 2021

Biden Admin Waives Sanctions on Iranian Oil Trade As DOJ Announces Charges On Spy Network

By Washington Free Beacon, July 15, 2021

The State Department informed Congress late Tuesday that it would waive sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil trade so that the country can access frozen funds from South Korea and Japan, the same day the Department of Justice announced charges on an Iranian spy network that sought to kidnap an American.

The waiver, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, allows the “transfer of Iranian funds in restricted accounts to exporters in Japan and the Republic of Korea,” according to a notification sent to Congress by the State Department. The waiver allows Iranian money that had been frozen as a result of American sanctions to be freed up without violating the law. “Allowing these funds to be used to repay exporters in these jurisdictions will make those entities whole with respect to the goods and services they exported to Iran, address a recurring irritant in important bilateral relationships, and decrease Iran’s foreign reserves,” the waiver states.

The waiver was announced on the same day the Justice Department announced new charges against a network of Iranian intelligence agents who sought to kidnap an American journalist and bring her to Iran. The charges include kidnapping conspiracy, sanctions violations conspiracy, bank and wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy charges.

The sanctions relief also comes as the United States and Iran get closer to finalizing a revamped nuclear deal that will even further unwind sanctions on Tehran. Congressional Republicans are likely to oppose the move, which lessens economic pressure on Iran at a time when it is still funding regional terror groups and building out its nuclear weapons program. Sanctions of Iran’s oil trade were a hallmark policy of the Trump administration, which sought to cut Iran’s exports down to zero and deny the regime a key source of income.

Richard Goldberg, the former director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction on Trump’s White House National Security Council, said the waiver will relieve pressure on Iran’s floundering economy and give it access to much-needed cash.

“There’s a reason we talk about accessible foreign exchange reserves versus inaccessible foreign exchange reserves. If you free up money that’s trapped in foreign accounts for Iran to pay off debts, you are bailing out the regime and rescuing the mullahs from a balance of payments crisis,” said Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “This is a bailout, plain and simple. And to announce it right as DOJ tells us Iran tried to kidnap an American journalist out of New York City—that’s a national outrage.”

A State Department spokesman said Blinken signed the sanctions waiver to give Japan and Korea another 90-days to complete transactions with Iran.

“The secretary of state previously signed a waiver to allow funds held in restricted Iranian accounts in Japan and Korea to be used to pay back Japanese and Korean companies that exported non-sanctioned items to Iran,” the spokesperson said. “These repayment transactions can sometimes be time consuming, and the secretary extended the waivers for another 90 days.”

The State Department says the waiver “does not allow for the transfer of any funds to Iran,” and will make whole Japanese and Korean companies that exported non-sanctioned goods and services before U.S. sanctions were tightened by the previous administration.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.) said the Biden administration is rewarding Iran with an economic bailout.

“President Biden today is giving the Iranian regime—the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism—an economic bailout by freeing up billions of dollars that U.S. sanctions had frozen in foreign banks,” said Hagerty. “I personally spent months working with the then-Japanese Prime Minster and his cabinet to put in place these crippling and biting sanctions, which had real and tangible results, only today to see them begin to be blown apart with the stroke of a pen in exchange for nothing. President Biden is doubling down on his Iran appeasement policy just as it was revealed that Iranian officials were plotting to abduct an American citizen in New York City, and as the regime is continuing to use missiles and proxy militants to attack Americans in Iraq and Syria.”

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.

 

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

• $25.00 here
• $50.00 here
• $75.00 here
• $100.00 here
• $250.00 here