The Biden administration just put the world on notice: It not only will negotiate with terrorists — it’ll reward them richly.
That’s the takeaway from the utterly craven move to free $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds and five Iranian prisoners in return for five US citizens held captive by Tehran.
A deal announced late on the 9/11 anniversary, of all things.
Frustrated by the mullahs’ intransigence even in the face of his humiliating generosity as his team rushed to resuscitate Barack Obama’s disastrous 2015 nuclear deal, President Biden found a new way to abase himself before a determined US enemy and make the world less safe while he’s at it.
The American hostages released here were all innocent travelers held for years in places like Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on faked charges.
The Iranians we’re springing include four sanctions-busters and an unregistered foreign agent — in other words, crooks legitimately tried and imprisoned.
We’re glad our hostages are coming home, but this guarantees Iran (and other hostile regimes) will snatch some more.
It looked like a terrible deal even before the details emerged, but the jaw-dropping ransom of $1.2 billion per hostage is simply insane — Biden might has well have attached a note saying please please please take some more!
Not to mention that’s a gift to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Yes, the cash is meant for humanitarian purposes, but (insult to injury!) Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has already said he’ll ignore Biden’s “orders”: “Humanitarian means whatever the Iranian people needs, so this money will be budgeted for those needs, and the needs of the Iranian people will be decided and determined by the Iranian government.”
Biden’s just given Tehran more breathing room as it pursues its twin aims of regional hegemony and nuclear breakout.
The regime hasn’t stopped any of its aggression: It’s enriched a huge amount of uranium and continues to plot attacks even on US soil.
As recently as last month, the United States was looking at putting military personnel on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz to deter Iranian aggression.
This is not a regime it is possible to form a real détente with, and it’s suicidal for the White House to behave as though it is.
At best, Biden scored a flimsy foreign-policy “victory” for himself (not the country), while innocent Americans will pay the price with their liberty or their lives.