RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18426/iran-and-america-plans-to-fund-russia-war-in

Iran’s efforts to conclude a revised nuclear deal with the Biden administration could result in the Kremlin receiving a windfall of half-a-billion dollars to fund its war effort against Ukraine.

To boost its economy, Russia is now demanding that Iran pay in cash for the deals currently under discussion, as well as repaying outstanding debts believed to be worth more than half a billion dollars in cash owed for Russia’s work on the Bushehr facility.

“Iran has promised Russia that it will pay its debt once Iranian funds held in the US are no longer under sanctions and become available for use,” a senior Western security official told me this week. “Furthermore, Iran has made transferring down payments to Russia for the purpose of implementing the military agreements between the parties conditional on reaching an agreement in Vienna.”

Apart from offering to help the Kremlin evade sanctions, Iran is also believed to be working to engage China and enlist its assistance as well for the purpose of bypassing Western sanctions.

Despite denials by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by the Russian news agency RIA confirming that there has been coordination between the parties for the purpose of bypassing Western sanctions.

Western security officials are concerned that any funds Iran sends to Moscow will be used to help fund Mr Putin’s war effort in Ukraine. There have already been reports of Iran providing weapons to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, and Moscow is desperate to find new ways of supporting its economy so that it can maintain its military offensive.

The fact that Iran is actively seeking to provide Moscow with financial assistance which could be used to fund the war in Ukraine is deeply embarrassing for the Biden administration, which still shows no sign of ending its efforts to revive the nuclear deal.

Certainly, if the deal does go ahead, enabling Iran to pay off its debts to Moscow, then the Biden administration could find itself accused of having the blood of innocent Ukrainian civilians on its hands for allowing Iran to fund the Kremlin’s war effort.

Iran’s efforts to conclude a revised nuclear deal with the Biden administration could result in the Kremlin receiving a windfall of half-a-billion dollars to fund its war effort against Ukraine.

That is the conclusion reached by Western security officials who are becoming increasingly concerned about the discussions taking place between Moscow and Tehran about deepening their cooperation once the nuclear deal has been signed.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/bidens-integrated-deterrence-military-strategy-daniel-greenfield/

Last year, Secretary of Defense Austin claimed that a new strategy called “integrated deterrence” would be at the heart of Biden’s new defense strategy. Last month, he was talking up a new National Defense Strategy driven by integrated deterrence while claiming that it would prove effective against Russia in the war in Ukraine. Instead the war showed “ID” doesn’t work.

What is “integrated deterrence”? It sounds better than leading from behind, which was Obama’s version of it, but it’s not too different from the failed approach of the Obama administration.

Like a lot of organizational jargon, “integrated deterrence” is a collection of meaningless buzzwords that no one understands concealing the same old thing that dresses up failure as success because under the exciting new approach, no one was even trying to succeed.

Integrated deterrence, if you listen to Austin, is everything and therefore nothing. ID is going to perfectly integrate together all military capabilities without regard for service rivalries, combined with all elements of the federal government, and be ready to go anywhere at home or across the globe without any friction or limitations, while also seamlessly integrating with our allies.

Or, as Austin put it during a visit to Poland, integrated deterrence uses “the capability and capacity that’s resident in our partners and allies.” Or, you know, leading from behind.

ID means being “integrated across our allies and partners, which are the real asymmetric advantage that the United States has over any other competitor or potential adversary,” Colin Kalh, Biden’s undersecretary of policy, had claimed. “Our adversaries know that they’re not just taking on the United States, they’re taking on a coalition of countries who are committed to upholding a rules-based international order.”

America has plenty of asymmetric advantages. Being tied to the Germans and the French, not to mention the awesome might of a variety of small countries that have marginal militaries and no desire to fight is not making China, Russia, or anyone else tremble in their leather boots.

A rules-based international order has not stopped a single war or deterred any aggressor.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18404/biden-administration-eu-iran-mullahs

The Biden administration and the EU do not need to go too far back to see the outcome of those appeasement policies and the nuclear deal with Iran. Its theocratic regime became more determined than ever, as an oblation, an offering to God, to annihilate Israel.

Right after the nuclear deal, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who enjoys the final say in Iran’s domestic and foreign policy, published a 416-page book, titled “Palestine,” with a cover featuring a map of the Middle East with no Israel in it.

In the book, Khamenei details his plan of destroying Israel and characterized himself as “the flag bearer of Jihad to liberate Jerusalem.”

The more the Islamic Republic became empowered due to the appeasement it received, the more it boasted that it could destroy Israel “in less than eight minutes.”

“Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it,” Winston Churchill said. This is exactly what is happening as the Biden administration and the European Union continue relentlessly to appease the ruling mullahs of Iran and attempting to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

The Biden administration and the European Union appear to believe that rewarding the Iranian regime will make it act as a constructive and modern nation-state. This idea first surfaced and was acted upon during the administration of then US President Barack Obama, who, on concluding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with Iran in 2015, pointed out that he was “confident” it would “meet the national security needs of the United States and our allies”.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/barack-obama-rewrites-his-russia-history-vladimir-putin-ukraine-11649450309?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine has sparked an Olympic sprint of sorts as politicians run away from their abysmal records regarding Vladimir Putin. Few are running faster than former President Barack Obama, who this week tried to rewrite the history of his own Russia policies.

“As somebody who grappled with the incursion into Crimea and the eastern portions of Ukraine, I have been encouraged by the European reaction [this time],” Mr. Obama said at an event in Chicago. “Because in 2014, I often had to drag them kicking and screaming to respond in ways that we would have wanted to see from those of us who describe ourselves as Western democracies.”

As for Mr. Putin, the former U.S. President purports to be surprised by the Russian leader’s brutality. “I don’t know that the person I knew is the same as the person who is now leading this charge. He was always ruthless. You witnessed what he did in Chechnya, he had no qualms about crushing those whom he considered a threat. That’s not new. For him to bet the farm in this way—I would not have necessarily predicted from him five years ago.”

Mr. Obama managed to say all this with a straight face while speaking at an event about “disinformation” in politics.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18402/arabs-biden-mistakes

“The UAE has allocated the bulk of the investments of its huge sovereign funds in the American markets, even excluding Asian and European markets, and has been keen to increase the volume of trade exchange with Washington. The UAE wanted to become America’s No 1 trading partner.” — Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, close associate of Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, United Arab Emirates, Mufakiru Al Emarat, March 29, 2022.

“This prompted the UAE and other countries not to rely on the US as a sole strategic partner. The UAE’s relationship with the US partner is at stake…. the Biden administration… may be on the verge of losing a regional partner.” — Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, Mufakiru Al Emarat, March 29, 2022

“He [Biden] has not learned the lessons from [former US President Barack] Obama’s mistakes and disasters…. Biden is continuing to make more mistakes, particularly in his dealings with Russia and the Gulf countries.” — Muhammed Al Mahmeed, Bahraini writer, Akhbar Al-Khaleej, April 3, 2022.

Veteran Lebanese journalist and political analyst Kheirallah Kheirallah said that there is no real difference between Biden and Obama. “Nothing has changed in Washington, from Barack Obama to Joe Biden. If anything has changed, it is for the worse.” — Elaph, March 30, 2022.

“How can a US administration … [refuse] to take note that northern Yemen has become an Iranian base for missiles and drones? These missiles and drones are…. now threatening navigation in the Red Sea as well.” — Kheirallah Kheirallah, Elaph, March 30, 2022.

“[This US policy] has encouraged Iran to go far in threatening the countries of the region and their security with the help of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. To put it more clearly, there is no sane person in the region willing to take seriously any reassuring words issued by [US Special Envoy for Iran] Rob Malley and other officials in the US administration dealing with the Iranian portfolio. Every child knows that these American officials have nothing but appeasement for Iran….” — Kheirallah Kheirallah, Elaph, March 30, 2022.

“Worse than all of the above would be if Washington responds to the Iranian condition by removing the Revolutionary Guard Corps from the list of terrorist organizations, as it did with the terrorist Houthi militia.” — Khorshid Delli, Kurdish researcher, Al-Ain, April 1, 2022.

“Biden’s policy toward the Iranian nuclear is not acceptable to the allies in the Middle East and the Arab Gulf….” — Khorshid Delli, Al-Ain, April 1, 2022.

“We see what Iran’s proxies are doing in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Kuwait.” — Mashari Al-Thaydi, Saudi journalist Al-Ain, March 30, 2022.

Although many in the Arab world diplomatically refer to Biden’s action as “mistakes,” they appear to recognize that they are deliberate, and lacking in any consideration for the wellbeing of people who will have to continue living in the region — which the Americans making these decisions for them will not.

The Biden administration’s courtship of Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism, seems a replay of the same heartless, coldblooded lack of concern as the Americans showed for the people they were leaving behind when they pulled out of Afghanistan; and now, when the US is seen dragging its feet to avoid giving the Ukrainians enough weapons fast enough to defend themselves adequately from a Russian slaughtering army.

Many seem confused why the Biden administration would want this as their legacy.

Many Arabs are continuing to express disappointment and frustration with the administration of US President Joe Biden, particularly its perceived appeasement of Iran’s mullahs, failure to classify the Iran-backed Houthi militia as a terrorist organization and turning its back on America’s erstwhile allies and friends in the Arab world.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/republicans-and-democrats-see-the-iran-deal-for-what-it-is/

“But perhaps the greatest sign of the deal’s weakness is that its own authors have walked away.”

Though President Biden promised a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal that currently sits on the table is weaker and more dangerous.

Republicans, who fought against Obama’s JCPOA, are predictably calling for an end to negotiations.

Earlier today, Republicans from the House Foreign Affairs Committee hosted a press conference to denounce Biden’s Iran deal. Congressman Andy Barr (R., Ky.) said Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy was working, and Biden’s current attempt amounts to a “flawed deal” that cannot go forward. To Barr and his colleagues, the JCPOA-minus is “flawed in process, flawed in substance, and flawed in verification protocols,” according to Barr.

As I wrote yesterday, Obama’s (already weak) Iran deal has always been a partisan issue — that is, until Biden botched it even further. Now even Democrats are speaking out.

Earlier today, Democratic Representatives Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Elaine Luria of Virginia led a press conference representing a group of 18 House Democrats in opposing the deal. Luria started off saying, “As a group, we have a variety of concerns; everywhere from concern about the negotiations all the way to . . . outright opposition.”

Congressman Juan Vargas (D., Calif.) criticized Biden for keeping Congress “in the dark” despite “fatal flaws.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/robert-malley-appeaser-extraordinaire-john-perazzo/

During his first few days as President, Joe Biden named Robert Malley as his U.S. Special Envoy for Iran. Malley has a long history of antipathy toward Israel, as well as a profoundly deep reserve of patience with Iran and other enemies of the Jewish state. Most notably, he helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal of 2015 — known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — and he subsequently opposed the Trump Administration’s “maximum pressure” sanctions against Tehran. From the start of his tenure with the Biden Administration, Malley called for the U.S. to return to the JCPOA as swiftly as possible, and to fully dismantle the sanctions that Trump had reimposed on Iran.   

Talks between the Biden Administration and Iran began formally in Vienna in April 2021, but were paused shortly before Iran’s presidential elections in June. Then, in late November, Tehran dispatched to Vienna a new negotiating team whose diplomats made more demands and offered fewer concessions than had their predecessors. By December 3, the talks had stalled. Six days later, Malley, conveying the Biden Administration’s desperate desire to strike some sort of agreement, stated that U.S. negotiators would be willing to sit down with their Iranian counterparts “at any time and any place” – preferably “face-to-face.” America, said Malley, was “prepared to get back into the deal as soon as possible – as soon as Iran is.” “Then,” he added, “we would lift all of the sanctions that are inconsistent with the JCPOA.”

But as of today, no deal with Iran seems to be on the horizon. As recently as March 27, Malley admitted to having little faith that the JCPOA could be revived anytime soon. “I can’t be confident it is imminent,” he lamented, noting how hard it is to bridge the gap.”

Americans can only hope and pray that Malley and his cohorts are not successful at reviving the JCPOA – or anything even remotely resembling it.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18400/biden-afghanistan-aid

After Biden’s retreat, the Taliban have consolidated control over Afghanistan. And over all the hungry children, the girls deprived of an education, and all the other sob stories that kept a river of private charity and taxpayer money flowing into a hellhole in which nothing ever got better.

That’s on top of the $782 million in “humanitarian aid” allocated to Afghanistan last year since the Taliban took over. This year, Biden signed an executive order allocating $3.5 billion of the Afghan assets held in the Federal Reserve for the same purpose. But even not counting those funds, Biden has dedicated $986 million to Afghanistan since the Taliban took over.

That’s nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money and nearly $4.5 billion in total funds.

The Biden administration keeps insisting that the money won’t go to the Taliban. That’s as plausible as its previous claims that the Afghan government wouldn’t collapse, that if it did we would be ready, and that all Americans would be evacuated before Kabul fell to the enemy.

There’s no one with less credibility on Afghanistan than a member of the Biden administration.

The Taliban have been hungry to get their hands on foreign aid, but, likely guided by their Qatari backers, they’ve also been clever about it. They proposed a joint body with the international community to dispense aid. When that didn’t work, they went back to their usual strategy of pressuring NGOs to hire Taliban members to determine where the aid should go and who should distribute it. But that’s just a matter of cutting out the middleman for more direct control.

Since the NGOs rely heavily on local labor, all the Taliban have to do is intimidate Afghan employees into following their orders. And for a terror group that practices mutilation and beheading, that’s not hard. Does anyone really believe that an Afghan with a wife and children living under Taliban rule is going to follow our aid guidelines rather than those of the gunmen

The Taliban, like the Houthis in Yemen and other Islamic terror groups who both cause and profit from famines, have already been distributing and taking credit for humanitarian aid.

Portions of the nearly $1 billion in foreign aid stolen from the paychecks of American workers and the mouths of their children will be used to finance a new Jihad against Western nations.

A generation after 9/11, Americans are once again funding the terrorists who are out to kill them.

Over two decades, the United States and its international partners poured billions in humanitarian aid into Afghanistan. Much of that aid went into the pockets of the Taliban.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18398/us-lead-lose-ground

Today, Russia in Ukraine is the focus, but the aspirations of China and Iran must not be ignored.

The US must — in the best interests of the United States — immediately deliver the weapons Ukraine needs to forestall future predators such as China, Iran and North Korea. What happens in Ukraine does not stay in Ukraine.

The longer the US shilly-shallies, the longer urgently needed weapons fail to reach Ukraine, the more it invites other predators.

Ukraine must have — now – not only the weapons it needs to combat Russia’s carnage, weapons to “close the skies,” …such as S-300s and S-400s and Migs that the Ukrainians could pull over the border; it must also have heavy weapons — planes, tanks and long-range anti-ship munitions — that Zelenskyy is requesting to repel Russia’s assault to sever Ukraine from the Black Sea, and landlocking the country to suffocate all means of commerce.

One wonders, as Kasparov suggests, if the Biden administration secretly wants Putin, “the devil you know,” to win.

“Everything I hear from other NATO members is that the U.S. has become the obstacle, and an explanation is required. Allowing Mr. Putin to keep an inch of Ukrainian soil after bombing civilians should be unimaginable. Conceding large areas of eastern Ukraine to the invader in exchange for a cease-fire would only give Mr. Putin time to consolidate and rearm for next time—and there will always be a next time.” – Garry Kasparov, Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2022

Kazakhstan, too, had an inspirational leader, Serikzhan Bilash, willing to fight for freedom. Many in the media and the Biden administration have completely ignored him and the struggle of the people of Kazakstan.

Another rising voice of freedom is that of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the opposition in Belarus, who is fighting to keep her country on the side of freedom. She, along with Zelenskyy, and Bilash represent the dreams and aspirations of thousands, likely millions, of people within their homelands. They are risking everything for the ideals that America and the West claim to hold dear.

[S]upporting those leaders who are out front should be easy. Why is America not supporting them further? Why are Russia’s generals and military leaders not being threatened? Why are America’s attempts at sanctioning Russian energy and all of Russia’s oligarchs, their families and their businesses so incomplete and half-hearted?

There is no diplomatic way out of this war.

The U.S. not only needs to recognize the power of these defiant leaders, but do more—much, much more — to help them. That is what is in the strategic interests of the United States.

The world is seeing Vladimir Putin’s clear plan to reestablish the Russian Empire. It also is hearing rumblings from Asia about restoration of a Chinese dynasty, and in the Middle East, a return to when Persia — now an extremely different Iran — dominated the region.

For any of these empires to expand, they need to take control of other states or groups of people. Those states can either be overrun and annexed, or they can be controlled and remain smaller, more manageable political units. Today, Russia in Ukraine is the focus, but the aspirations of China and Iran must not be ignored.