Yesterday we reported that the Biden administration was considering giving Iran access to $10 billion in escrow being held in Iraq.
It seems inconceivable that he’d do something like this after what Hamas did to Israel on 10/7. But now he’s done it. Biden has issued the sanctions waiver today and Iran is about to be $10 billion richer.
Here’s more from Free Beacon:
The Biden administration on Tuesday reapproved a sanctions waiver that will allow Iran to access upward of $10 billion in frozen assets, the State Department confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon.
The sanctions waiver, which was set to expire today after first being authorized for a period of 120 days in July, allows Iraq to pay Iran for multibillion-dollar electricity purchases. This is the first time the Biden administration has renewed the waiver since the Iran-backed terror group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that was reported to have been planned with Tehran’s support.
Analysts place the amount of cash accessible by Iran at upward of $10 billion, as the Free Beacon first reported on Monday.
Renewal of the waiver “allows Iraq to use its own funds to render payment for Iranian electricity imports into restricted Iranian accounts in Iraq,” a State Department official told the Free Beacon, speaking only on background. “These restricted funds can only be used for humanitarian and other non-sanctionable transactions.”
In deciding to renew the waiver for an additional 120 days, the State Department official said, “Unfortunately, Iraq will not wean itself off of Iranian gas imports overnight.”
The administration maintains that allowing these funds to be accessed by Iran limits its leverage of the Iraqi government, which has grown increasingly close to Tehran’s hardline regime in recent years.
Critics, however, see the sanctions waiver as proof that the administration is maintaining Tehran’s financial channels, even after it provided Hamas with the resources necessary to slaughter more than 1,200 Israeli and take hostage many others, including Americans.
“The White House just responded to October 7th with a $10 billion reward,” Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and sanctions expert who served on the White House National Security Council, told the Free Beacon. “Congress needs to act quickly to cut off Iran’s access to every penny.”
Due to Iraq’s reliance on Iran for energy, the State Department said, “this waiver continues to be necessary, to provide space and time for the government of Iraq to implement [Iraqi prime minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani’s] energy reform agenda.”
Biden could have forced Iraq to keep the funds in escrow in Baghdad, like Trump did. But nope. He’s giving the money to Iran which we all know will be used for more terrorism against Israel and America.