So, What's Our Iran Policy Now?
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected reports Friday that Washington and Tehran were close to deals on limiting Iran's nuclear program and releasing U.S. citizens detained in the country.
"With regard to Iran, some of the reports that we've seen about an agreement on nuclear matters or, for that matter, on detainees, are simply not accurate and not true," Blinken said when asked about indirect talks via Oman.
As of August 10, we heard this:
The United States and Iran reached a deal on August 10 for Tehran’s release of five Iranian-American dual nationals to house arrest in exchange for Washington’s release of several jailed Iranians and the unfreezing of about $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue.
. . . The latest prisoner release is not the first time Iran has demanded ransom payments in exchange for releasing hostages. In 2015 and early 2016, the Obama administration negotiated a similar scheme alongside the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, sending Iran $400 million — the first installment of a $1.7 billion payment — as Tehran released four Americans.
As of yesterday,
The U.S. and Qatari governments have agreed to block Iran from accessing any of the $6 billion it gained access to as part of a prisoner swap deal between the Biden administration and Tehran last month, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told House Democrats on Thursday, according to three sources familiar with his remarks, two of whom were in the room.
. . . The administration has faced bipartisan pressure to block Iran’s access to the money as U.S. officials continue to investigate whether Iran had any direct involvement in Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel. The Biden administration has said Tehran could use the $6 billion only for humanitarian assistance.
Secretary Blinken now hedges:
During a portion of an interview with NBC News set to air on Thursday’s broadcast of “NBC Nightly News,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen by a prisoner swap deal the Biden administration brokered was money Iran was allowed to accrue under the Trump administration and Iran has “always been allowed to use” these funds for humanitarian reasons, but “for technical reasons, Iran was having trouble actually using the funds,” and the Biden administration moved it to a different account, “where the money could actually be used, but under the supervision of our Treasury Department, only for humanitarian purposes.”
. . . "And not a dollar of that money has been spent to date. And we retain the right to freeze that account.”
So it wasn't going to happen, but then it did, but it was Trump's fault, and we're maybe gonna freeze it, or maybe not, according to some people who were in the room. I don't buy a billion of it.Meanwhile, the guy who was Blinken's special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, who would have been the point man for this whole deal, had his security clearance suspended, was taken off the project, and was not allowed in the building sometime between April and June of this year, when Blinken originally said nobody was close on a deal -- er, what deal?
The deal that isn't taking place, of course. What other deal could there be?
Something's really, really hinky here, and nobody's asking questions. I asked on Wednesday what the real agenda would be on Blinken's trip to Israel. One question that popped into my mind was the timing of Isreal's declaration of a national unity government:
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, an opposition party leader, announced they have reached an agreement to form an emergency unity government in the wake of attacks launched by the militant group Hamas.
The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday that both sides came to an agreement after meeting at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) headquarters in Tel Aviv.
I think this was to forestall any attempt by Blinken to play sides against Netanyahu. Biden clearly doesn't like Netanyahu, and Netanyahu trusts neither Biden nor Blinken. The Israelis are certainly aware of the reality that they play a role in US politics:
Two separate U.S. State Department tweets calling for Israel to stop its counterstrikes against Hamas terrorists in Gaza are now deleted.
It follows fierce backlash against the agency for seeming to suggest Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself or engage in counter operations after Palestinian fundamentalists launched a multi-front surprise attack on Saturday.
I get the impression that Netanyahu at this point has the upper hand.