The White House is begging Britain and France not to formally rebuke Iran over the theocracy’s growing nuclear program.
Administration officials have been pressuring the US allies and other European nations to vote against censuring Iran at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) board of governors next month, diplomats close to the discussions told the Wall Street Journal.
The US is also preparing to abstain from the IAEA vote, the diplomats added, with some suggesting censure could further destabilize Iran following the death of its president, Ebrahim Raisi, in a May 19 helicopter crash.
A State Department spokesperson told The Post that the administration has made “no decisions” about the meeting next month and “any speculation about decisions is premature.”
“We are increasing pressure on Iran through sanctions and international isolation as seen most recently in the coordinated G7 measures taken in the wake of Iran’s attack against Israel last month,” the spokesperson added. “We remain tightly coordinated with our E3 partners [France, Germany and the UK].”
Other Biden administration officials told the Journal that it was advocating for European nations to up their pressure on Iran by removing regime banks from their countries and designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terror group.
In response to earlier reports of disagreement between the US and its allies over the issue, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said, “It is outrageous that this administration continues to undermine our allies’ efforts to hold Iran accountable for its ongoing [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons] violations. When is this administration going to wake up?”
The Obama administration relaxed sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits being placed on Tehran’s nuclear program through a 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA).
The Iran nuclear deal was scrapped by former President Donald Trump in 2018 — and President Biden declared it “dead” in November 2022 despite efforts by his administration to revamp it.
Last month, the Biden administration extended a sanctions waiver that unlocked $10 billion in frozen funds for the Iranian regime by letting Iraq pay for electricity services.
“The Biden/Obama appeasement policy towards Iran has been an abject failure for over a decade, yet they continue to make concession after concession,” Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Post.
“As Iran inches towards a nuke, I can’t think of a more weak and dangerous response than lobbying our closest allies to ignore international efforts to hold the regime accountable.”
Under Secretary of State John Kerry, the Obama administration also blocked the FBI from arresting individuals linked to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, according to whistleblower disclosures revealed last week by Sens. Chuch Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).
Some of those named in the disclosures were “known terrorists” and traveled on US soil.
Tehran is building up its supply of weapons-grade nuclear material, according to a Monday report from the IAEA, with 313.2 pounds of uranium having been enriched up to 60%.
Just 92.5 pounds of uranium enriched to that percent is enough to make a nuclear weapon in a few days, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog noted.
In February, the agency recorded a 45.4-pound increase, according to the Associated Press.
US ambassador to the IAEA Laura Holgate said in March that Iran’s “level of cooperation with the agency remains unacceptable” and said the board of governors “must be prepared to take further action should Iran’s cooperation not improve dramatically.”
Iran has claimed its nuclear program is strictly for civilian purposes, but the IAEA governors’ board issued a November 2022 resolution expressing “profound concern” for the regime having ignored safeguards, failing to cooperate with the UN watchdog and harboring nuclear material in “three undeclared locations.”
Without a change in course, US officials expect international sanctions to resume, potentially with a referral of the matter to the UN Security Council.
However, the referral would still face an uphill battle against UN Security Council member states like Russia and China, both of whom have close ties to Iran and enjoy veto power over any Security Council resolution.