European Parliament Gets Into Hot Debate Over Bloc’s Iran Policy

In August, the United States agreed to unblock $6 billion of Iran’s money frozen in South Korea for the release of five US dual nationals held hostage by Tehran, insisting that the agreement restricts the funds to purchases of food and medicine.

However, the State Department’s statement came after Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi told NBC News that the money will be spent on whatever the Iranian people need.

"This money will be budgeted for those needs and the needs of the Iranian people will be decided and determined by the Iranian government," Raisi said.

Although some Iranian officials have acknowledged that the funds can be spent only for “non-sanctionable” goods, the foreign ministry insisted early on that Iran can do whatever it wanted with the released money.

"The Treasury Department has strict oversight over the use of those funds. We have visibility into how they are used, and we have the ability to police their use," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters, adding that the criterion is that the funds be spent for humanitarian purposes.

The funds are currently being transferred from South Korea to Qatar via Switzerland and the hostages will be allowed to leave when all the money is deposited in a special Iranian account in Qatar.

There has been strong criticism of the Biden administration’s move in Congress. Many Republicans have accused the White House of caving in to Iran and by offering a large ransom endangering the lives of other Americans.

Jomhouri-e Eslami newspaper wrote of the critical need to address the issue, highlighting the risks posed to both the eastern regions of Iran and the broader geopolitical landscape, while Tehran usually downplays the issue in a bid to retain calm.

The editorial speaks of the plight of the people of the eastern part of the country and the prolonged water shortages they endure at the hands of the Taliban which continues to refuse to deliver Iran's water share from the Helmand River.

The newspaper claims that “safeguarding Iran's rights and ensuring border security while preventing the spread of negative consequences from the Taliban's authority in Afghanistan can be achieved through political means” in a call to arms to the nation.

Referencing the ruling Taliban leadership's two-year reign, the newspaper highlighted Afghanistan's 12% increase in the industrial production of narcotics and the surge in the production of methamphetamine. "This trend highlights the Taliban's reliance on the narcotics trade as a source of revenue, effectively engaging in drug terrorism," the newspaper wrote.

The editorial shows the regime's growing concern about its Afghan neighbors, which in May saw two Iranians killed and one Taliban soldier dead in a border dispute over water rights. In August, an aerial photo circulating on social media led to extensive criticism of the government for “conceding” thousands of hectares of Iranian land to the Taliban. The photo shows a 130 km long security wall built by Iran at some distance from the border demarcation line with Afghanistan which is along the Hirmand (Helmand) River. 

After months of secrecy surrounding the Biden administration’s clandestine agreement with the regime in Tehran, new information was disclosed on Monday, a very disturbing timing for Americans marking the anniversary of the 9/11 and for Iranians readying for the anniversary of the Women, Life, Freedom protests. 

The US Congress was informed on September 11 that Washington had cleared the way for the release of five American citizens detained in Iran by issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of US sanctions. In return, five Iranians held in the US will also be released, four charged with sanctions violations and a fifth, acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Iran.

Both Washington and Tehran since announcing the prisoner release deal in August were hinting that the deal and the unblocking of the funds were separate issues, but the waiver document released Monday clearly links the two as one agreement, rendering the whole scheme a ransom payment. It also raises serious questions as to how the administration has skirted legislation that requires approval of Congress before taking such action. The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act was passed in 2015, and gave Congress the right to review all agreements with Tehran.

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) calls it “shameful” that President Joe Biden first used 9/11 as an excuse to flee Afghanistan and “now he desecrates this day by paying ransom to the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism.” 

Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) seconded the reprimand, saying that “on the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, the biggest terrorist attack on US soil, President Biden is waiving sanctions and allowing the transfer of $6 billion in frozen funds for a ransom payment to Iran, the world’s biggest terrorist sponsor." 

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) decried Biden for keeping the Congress and the American people in the dark about the deal. “Today’s news confirms there has already been a side deal including a $6 billion ransom and the release of Iranian operatives,” he said, adding: “The Biden administration must keep their deal secret because if they disclosed it, the law requires them to come to Congress and defend it, and this appeasement is utterly indefensible.”

Representative Cory Mills (R-FL) vehemently opposed the decision that will “ultimately fund terrorist activities” against Americans and their allies. “This is Obama 2.0 and the same policy failures that resulted in Iran’s advancements in nuclear weapon technology, uranium enrichment, and billions to Iran in the failed JCPOA,” referring to the 2016 deal Obama made sending $400 million in cash to Iran in exchange for four American prisoners. 

“The Biden regime in the matter of days has embarrassed us...releasing $6B to a terroristic regime who’s politically aligned to China while ignoring the 9/11 anniversary sites on what is the worst terrorist attack in US history,” he added.

US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-ID) reiterated that this deal “creates dangerous incentives to capture Americans abroad, provides Iran a cash windfall as it continues to attack US troops and sell drones to Russia.” He pointed out that striking such a deal “is tone deaf on the anniversary of Mahsa Amini death," which sparked the boldest challenge against the regime that shaped the Women, Life, Freedom movement. 

Iranian political commentator Reza Taghizadeh described the deal as a slap in the face of Iranians who have revolted against the regime and a betrayal to the blood of 600 people killed during the regime’s crackdown on protests since September and the death of Mahsa Amini. 

The five Iranians' identities were revealed Monday by Al-Monitor citing the Islamic Republic’s mission to the United Nations, Kambiz Attar Kashani, Mehrdad Moein-Ansari, Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, Amin Hasanzadeh, and Kaveh Afrasiabi. 

Kashani is an engineer who in February was sentenced to 30 months in prison for allegedly sending electronic equipment and technology to the Iranian government, including the Central Bank of Iran, using front companies in the United Arab Emirates. Moein-Ansari is a resident of the United Arab Emirates and Germany and was sentenced in September 2021 to five years in prison for his role in a scheme to obtain sensitive dual-use items that could have been used for nuclear weapons, missile guidance and development, and other military purposes. 

Sarhangpour Kafrani, aka Reza Sarhang, is a Canada-based Iranian charged in July 2021 with illegally exporting laboratory equipment to Iran. Hasanzadeh is a US permanent resident living in Michigan, who was indicted in December 2020. Federal prosecutors accused Hasanzadeh, an engineer, of stealing confidential information from his employer and sending it to his brother in Iran, who had ties to the Islamic Republic’s military. 

Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi was a Boston-based political scientist and author, arrested by the FBI in January 2021 on charges of working as an unregistered agent of the Iranian government, and was charged in with violating the law that requires individuals acting as foreign agents in the United States to register with the US government. 

During a speech on Monday, Bagheri-Kani leveled criticism at opponents of negotiations, accusing them of stripping the regime of a vital and crucial “instrument for securing national interests.”

His remarks came amid an ongoing debate among the country’s politicians regarding the approach towards international negotiations over the country’s nuclear program. Bagheri-Kani's support for diplomatic interactions with the West seemed contrary to what his political camp was pushing for when hardliner Saeed Jalili was the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (2007-2013) and former president Hassan Rouhani held office (2013-2021).

Bagheri-Kani was a protégé of hardliner Jalili, who was traditionally opposed to any accommodation with West and has been playing an influential role among Iran's hardliners who were incessantly attacking Rouhani over the JCPOA nuclear deal.

But Bagheri-Kani now maintains that Tehran sees negotiations as a vital means to secure national interests. “The redline in criticizing the government’s foreign policy is safeguarding national interests, not individuals or institutions,” he added.

“Foreign policy is not a realm of emotions but rather a field of beliefs, rationality, and intelligence," Bagheri-Kani said addressing a group of university professors. He pointed out that some try to portray "security and development" as being in conflict with "commitment to ideals and values," explaining that “sustainable security and development" is, in fact, contingent upon "adherence to ideals and values." 

In a clear jab directed at hardliners, he said, "Those who, under the guise of defending values, seek to portray negotiations as fundamentally opposed to values are essentially aiming to deplete the regime's hand in utilizing this key and vital tool for national interests,” he stated.

Emphasizing that there is no obstacle to the talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement --officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), he said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran sees no obstacle to resuming negotiations and finalizing an agreement if the other parties act realistically and prevent repeating the past mistakes."

"The administration has never blocked the path to diplomacy, negotiations and efforts to secure the national interests through achievement of a balanced agreement," the senior diplomat said.

World powers were in talks in Vienna for 11 months in 2021-2022 to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The negotiations collapsed in March 2022 over Tehran’s demands that the Revolutionary Guards be removed from a US list of foreign terrorist organizations and ‘guarantees’ to cushion its economy and nuclear program from the US again leaving the accord. The Biden administration has been striving to bring the United States back into the JCPOA, a deal that was previously abandoned under the Trump administration.

Recently, Washington and Tehran reached a contentious agreement, whose details have been concealed from the public as well as lawmakers in Washington. The deal entails the release of five American prisoners detained in Tehran in exchange for five Iranian prisoners held in the United States as well as the release of $6 billion of frozen Iranian assets.

As a first step in this deal – which followed a two-year mediation effort by Qatar and Oman -- Iran on August 10 released four imprisoned US citizens from Evin prison into house arrest, where they joined a fifth already under home confinement.

These include businessman Siamak Namazi, 51, Emad Sharqi, 58, and environmental activist Morad Tahbaz, 67, who holds British nationality in addition to Iranian citizenship. The identities of the fourth and fifth Americans who either left prison or were under house arrest have not been disclosed.

Earlier in the day, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, IAEA's Rafael Grossi, said that bilateral talks between Iran and the United States could "provide clarity" and be beneficial.

Speaking at a news conference during the International Atomic Energy Agency 's (IAEA) 35-nation Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Grossi acknowledged that Washington has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of confidential talks with Iran, but he clarified that he is not privy to the details. He also added that Washington might be discussing the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Tehran but the IAEA has a host of outstanding issues with Iran, including monitoring of its nuclear activities.

The Hengaw Human Rights Organization, specializing in coverage of events in Kurdish regions of Iran, released the video, coinciding with an announcement made by Amini's parents on Instagram indicating their intention to conduct a commemorative ceremony at her gravesite, marking the anniversary of her death aged just 22.

Amini died nearly a year ago during her detention by the morality police while en route to Tehran.

She is said to have died of brutal head wounds and her passing sparked one of the most substantial anti-government protests in the 44-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The aftermath of last year's protests saw a deadly crackdown by the regime, resulting in the tragic loss of more than 500 civilians, with thousands sustaining injuries and tens of thousands arrested.

The Iranian regime has neither disclosed official figures nor assumed responsibility for any of the casualties.