Trump Says Biden Admin Is Allowing Iran To Build Nuclear Weapons
Former US president Donald Trump says Washington is allowing Iran to build “a massive nuclear weapon,” criticizing the Biden administration’s policies regarding the Islamic Republic.
Former US president Donald Trump says Washington is allowing Iran to build “a massive nuclear weapon,” criticizing the Biden administration’s policies regarding the Islamic Republic.
Delivering a keynote speech on rising crime in the United States on the second day of a two-day America First Agenda Summit on Tuesday, July 26, in Washington, Trump said Iran would never have been allowed to develop nuclear weapons if he had been the president.
“They (Iran) were dying to make a deal. They would have made a deal with us right after the election, and it would have been a good deal,” he added.
Trump claimed that “Iran, China, Russia and North Korea weren't going to do a thing against us just two years ago,” but now “we're a nation that is no longer respected or listened to around the world. We are a nation that in many ways has become a joke.”
Lashing out the policies of President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party for the country's ills, he decried Biden allowing an "invasion" by millions of migrants crossing the southern border, highest inflation in 49 years and highest gas prices “in the history of our country." "Our country is going to hell and is going to hell very fast... We are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation."
He stopped short of declaring his candidacy but hinted that he would run for president in the next election, noting that a Republican will be back in the White House in 2024.
The influential Senators, including Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and Chuck Grassley and Ted Cruz have signed the letter led by Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa say that after Argentina detained Iranians with links to the Revolutionary Guard in early June, the Biden Administration “has refused to provide key Argentinian law enforcement officials information confirming links to terrorist activities.”
Argentina’s security minister Anibal Fernández tweeted on June 11 that the government detained a Venezuelan plane sanctioned by the United States and withheld the passport of five Iranian crew members. The admission by the minister came after a local website reported on the incident. Later it was revealed that the pilot of the Iranian plane “leased” to a Venezuelan cargo carrier.
A week later, as Argentina downplayed any links with the Revolutionary Guard, head of the Paraguayan National Intelligence Secretariat Esteban Aquino said Captain Gholamreza Ghasemi of the 747 cargo plane was a member of the IRGC Qods (Quds) Force, sanctioned by the US for terror activities.
According to the senators who have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Argentinian judiciary has asked for information “key to their investigation into the Iranian suspects” held since June. The senators say that “The Argentine judiciary, through standard process which is called the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) program, requested information from the Justice Department on the potential involvement of the plane and its crew in support of international terrorism.”
The letter accuses the Biden administration of delaying information because it pursues to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA, which former President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018.
The senators say the alleged delay is “all to prioritize the administration’s desperate and misguided pursuit of a new Iran nuclear deal, it would be a disgrace and completely unacceptable. We need assurances right away that vital information will be promptly provided, along with a full explanation for the delay,”
The administration has yet to respond to the accusation, but its record in relation to Iran has been mixed since it launched indirect talks in Vienna in April 2021 to revive the JCPOA.
While the Biden team has issues new sanctions against individuals and companies involved in clandestine Iranian activities violating previous US sanctions, the administration has not vigorously enforced the major economic sanctions against Iran’s oil exports.
Since early 2021, China has more than doubled its illicit imports of discounted oil from the Islamic Republic, throwing a lifeline to its dire finances.
The senators warned that if it tuns out the administration purposely delayed or ignored Argentinian requests needed to carry out their investigation, “it would be a disgrace and completely unacceptable.” Sen, Ernst was quoted as saying, “We need assurances right away that vital information will be promptly provided, along with a full explanation for the delay.”
In a warning mixed with threats Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Hassan Asafari warned, "Iran's nuclear capabilities are being boosted and tomorrow would be too late for the West to return to the negotiations."
Asafari said in an interview with the government-owned Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that "the Western parties to the JCPOA have pushed the negotiations into a deadlock and it is in their interest to come back to the negotiating table."
The hardliner member of parliament also said: "It is a lie that it is the IRGC that prevents the negotiators from getting a result from the talks." He added: "This is not true. It is a lie told by the US side in the negotiations. What has led to the suspension of the talks is the reneging by the other side."
He was referring to numerous reports since the talks were suspended that Iran demands that the United States remove the Revolutionary Guard from its list of ‘Foreign Terrorist Organizations’.
Meanwhile, he criticized the Iranian government for not informing the parliament about where the negotiations stand, adding that the government's behavior is unacceptable.
Hoever, Iranian Foreign Ministry's former director general for Middle east affairs, Ghasem Mohebali reiterated that the members of Iran's current negotiating team have always been opposed to the JCPOA. He added that recent developments in Iran including statements made by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's senior foreign policy adviser Ali Akbar Velayati have proven that the negotiators' objective is not to revive the JCPOA, and Tehran is no longer following that objective.
Velayati last week praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and recommended an alliance with Moscow.
Mohebali said that one of the main reasons why Iranian negotiators are not interested in telling the media about what they are doing is that they have not had any achievements and their inaction has brought the negotiations to a standstill. "They do not want to talk to the media because they do not want the public to know about their failure," he said.
The former diplomat added that members of Iran's former negotiating team were career diplomats who had a lot of experience and spoke English, while the members of the new team lack these attributes.
Mohebali further charged that the negotiating team does not have a roadmap for the talks. Asked if there is any hope for a change in this policy, Mohebali said: "Unfortunately, the government is inefficient in both domestic and foreign policy, and even in running the everyday business of its ministries. You cannot expect much from such a government." He added: "In a democratic country,” and in a democratic country they would have called for early elections.
Tehran needs political determination to revive the JCPOA, the former diplomat said and pointed out that Iran's new alliance with Russia is also a hindrance to returning to the talks.
Meanwhile, a statement made by Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami, appears to have made Iran's mixed messages to the West even more confusing. Eslami told the IRGC-linked Fars News Agency , this week that Iran will not allow monitoring cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be turned on until there is a nuclear agreement.
