Contributor
A leading Israeli security expert has told Iran International that Khamenei’s regime will use the $6 billion hostage payment to “suppress the Iranian people.”
As part of a secretive deal reached with Iran’s regime, the Biden administration will funnel $6 billion in sanctioned oil revenue to Tehran in exchange for the release of five unjustly detained Americans. The US government will also free jailed Iranians as part of the controversial deal.
Gen. (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, now a senior researcher at the Israeli Defense Security Forum, said “Money is fungible” and added the amount of money that will be sent to Iran is, according to media reports, more than $6 billion.
The Islamic Republic “can use the money to fund terrorist proxies and armaments,” said Kuperwasser, who was the former head of the Research Division at the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Corps.
He noted the hostage payment deal is “acquiescence to the Iranian policy of kidnapping to force the International community to do what it wants.”
Kuperwasser cited the example of the clerical regime seizing the Belgian aid worker Oliver Vandecasteele as a hostage. The Belgium government released the convicted Iranian terrorist Assadollah Asadi in exchange for Vandecasteele.
He said the current deal is “another sign to accept the malign behavior of the Iranian regime. The IRGC has not yet been proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Europeans and the United Kingdom.” Kuperwasser, who was also the Director General of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, said the Western countries “are not doing anything to enrage the mullah regime.”
He continued that “This is a dangerous situation. The international community allows Iran to be a [nuclear] threshold state.” Kuperwasser outlined the three pre-conditions for Iran’s atomic weapons program.
He said,“the fissile material is there” for Iran’s nuclear weapons program and the “delivery system is basically there,” adding that only “The weaponization is missing.” Iran has amassed enough enriched uranium for at least two nuclear weapons, experts say.
Kuperwasser said against the backdrop of the astonishingly fast progress Iran’s regime has made with respect to its nuclear weapons program, the hostage payment deal worries the Israeli security establishment.
He noted that Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement about the hostage agreement, in which he scorned the deal that will pump $6 billon into the coffers of the clerical regime. Netanyahu said Israel’s policy against the Iranian regime will not be sidelined by Biden’s efforts to reach a new nuclear deal with Tehran.
Iran International reported in June that European intelligence agencies issued a batch of reports, documenting Iran’s attempts to obtain nuclear weapons technology in 2022. According to the Netherlands General and Intelligence Security Service (AVID), the Islamic Republic’s highly advanced and fast-moving enrichment of weapons-grade uranium “brings the option of a passible Iranian first nuclear test closer.” The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) first located and translated the European intelligence documents.
Last week, Iran International reported that critics of Biden’s new deal to free American hostages say it will only emboldens the Iranian regime’s hostage-taking policy.
Kupperwasser said in October more sanctions will be lifted on Iran’s regime at the UN. Ballistic missile sanctions imposed on Iran in a 2015 UN resolution will expire on October 18.
