On Wednesday, a matter of weeks after an Iran-backed strike killed three U.S. servicemembers in Jordan, the Biden administration did this:
The Biden administration on Wednesday reapproved a sanctions waiver that unlocks upwards of $10 billion in frozen funds for the Iranian government, according to a copy of the notice submitted to Congress late Wednesday and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
The sanctions waiver—which has drawn fierce GOP opposition on Capitol Hill—allows Iraq to transfer electricity payments to Iran via third-party countries. The sanctions waiver was last approved by the Biden administration in November and set to expire this month, putting the White House in a tight position as a mounting chorus of GOP lawmakers express concern about sanctions being bypassed. The authority granted in the latest waivers allows Iraq to convert dinars into Euros and transfer payments into Iranian banks accounts in Oman.
Around this same time, the Biden White House joined other countries in warning Iran not to send missiles to Russia.
John Kirby, who must have to take Dramamine by the handful to keep from getting motion sickness from all the spin, was asked about more Biden WH insanity and responded this way:
JACQUI TIME: “You guys are issuing this warning to Iran two days after renewing a waiver that unlocked $10 billion in frozen funds. Don’t you think Iran’s paying more attention to the actions of this administration, then words?”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 15, 2024
John Kirby: “I can’t speak for the mullahs or what… pic.twitter.com/UTXDWponvr
Here's the full post from @CurtisHouck:
JACQUI TIME: “You guys are issuing this warning to Iran two days after renewing a waiver that unlocked $10 billion in frozen funds. Don’t you think Iran’s paying more attention to the actions of this administration, then words?”
John Kirby: “I can’t speak for the mullahs or what they're paying attention to or not, Jacqui. I would remind that this sanctions waiver is renewed — or up for renewal every three months. It’s a quarterly thing. Um, it’s a sanctions package that was actually put in place by the previous administration, by President Trump and his team that allows for Iraq to be able to work its way off of Iranian energy, so that they can keep the lights on. And we’re continuing to work with our Iraqi partners about how to do that. But, right now, they still are dependent for a lot of energy from — coming from Iran, and so, we don’t want to penalize the Iraqi people for efforts that they're still trying to get to wean off of that, and I would remind you — everybody, and we’ve talked about this before — I think, three months ago, we probably talked about this before — none of this money goes to the mullahs. None of this money goes into Tehran. The sanctions relief that is provided actually is — goes to vendors that provide humanitarian assistance to the Iranian people. So, not only do the Iraqi people not suffer because of this, the Iranian people aren’t going to suffer because of this.”
"I can't speak for the mullahs," said Kirby. The mullahs are probably laughing at this bunch in the White House they've got on the hook.
More:
.@JacquiHeinrich: “In the last three months alone since the last renewal, you had an Iran-backed proxy kill three American soldiers in a drone attack in Jordan, the Houthis in the Red Sea firing anti-ship ballistic missiles, suicide drones at commercial vessels and navy ships.… pic.twitter.com/UoO2TC9rr7
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 15, 2024
The full exchange:
.@JacquiHeinrich : “In the last three months alone since the last renewal, you had an Iran-backed proxy kill three American soldiers in a drone attack in Jordan, the Houthis in the Red Sea firing anti-ship ballistic missiles, suicide drones at commercial vessels and navy ships. You had — you know, three atomic bombs apparently could be built in Iran with ur — uranium enriched to that extent. Blinken today addressing that very issue in Vienna, saying there’s still an issue of the IAEA inspectors. I mean, what have they done in the last three months to justify another renewal of this waiver?”
John Kirby: “The renewal that we go through every quarter — we — it’s really about not penalizing the Iraqi people and the fact that they’re still heavily dependent on Iran — Iranian energy, but in the last three months look what else we’ve done. We’ve gone after Houthi capabilities ashore. We’ve got a coalition of ships in the Red Sea protecting against Houthi attacks on shipping there. We have struck back and forcefully against some of these militia groups in Iraq and Syria. We continue to have sanctions in place — uh — uh — significant sanctions on the Iranian regime for multiple reasons. There’s — protested — they’re going after protesters — support for terrorist networks, their nuclear program. I mean, there’s a lot of sanctions in place and, oh, by the way, we’re still conducting interdiction operations at sea to try to prevent their shipments of material and arms to some of these groups. So, the idea that we’re just laying back and not doing anything on Iran just doesn’t — doesn’t just flies in the face of the facts.”
Watching the spokespeople for this administration lecture about "the facts" would be laughable if it wasn't so dangerous.
I would like to know the names of the vendors providing “humanitarian assistance.” https://t.co/kiGrTovA8M
— Sarah Raviani (@sarahraviani) March 15, 2024
Not too many talking about the 10B released to Iran from biden. Where do his loyalties lie? Certainly not to the American citizens. https://t.co/EhKNyixPcB
— TruthBomb (@Annieschuschu) March 15, 2024
Releasing tens of billions of dollars to a regime that likes to chant "death to America" while leaving our border open for millions to enter the country illegally and criticizing Israel instead of Hamas -- what could possibly go wrong?
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Related:
Biden Says We Will Have Discussions About Iran’s Responsibility for Soldiers’ Deaths
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