The decision makes no sense on the merits, and it seems to be driven entirely by the administration’s desire to mollify hawkish critics that will never be satisfied by anything Biden does.
The Washington Post reports that the Biden administration is apparently reneging on a major part of the prisoner exchange agreement with Iran:
U.S. officials and the Qatari government have agreed to stop Iran from accessing a $6 billion account for humanitarian assistance in light of Hamas’s attack on Israel, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told House Democrats on Thursday, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private remarks.
Other outlets have published similar reports today. The decision makes no sense on the merits, and it seems to be driven entirely by the administration’s desire to mollify hawkish critics that will never be satisfied by anything Biden does. The money in question belongs to Iran, and the release of funds was set up in such a way that it couldn’t be used for anything except humanitarian trade.
Blocking the funds that the U.S. promised to release is churlish. It harms only Iranian civilians, as they will not be able to benefit from the imports of food and medicine that this money could have paid for. Ordinary Iranians are once again being punished for the crimes of others, and in this case the others aren’t even in Iran.
And, so it goes………………
You can count on the USA to break its promises when it suits itself or Israel. Sanctions have no effect on governments, they hurt the average people in the countries being sanctioned. They do not cause the people to rise up to overthrow the governments.
Some people I met say the West doesn’t cause economic turmoil in other countries and that every country should take care of its own people. The US and many of its allies meddle in the affairs of Developing Nations and the US and UK bombed the hell out of Iraq after the Gulf War ended and long before the Iraq war started. They had the UN impose sanctions against Iraq which led to the starvation of the people. The UN’s Oil For Food Program restricted the amount of food Iraq could get.
The people you “met” obviously do not understand how trade works. Even the US imports much of its food.
Neither do they understand how sanctions work, not only directly, but for secondary sanctions and the threat of secondary sanctions, even for necessary parts, and especially when the US has financial control globally through SWIFT etc.
What else is NEW. The Biden crew are totally without honor. Not only are their shortsighted betrayals bad for Americans, but for every citizen of the world. Will there be any breakthrough on stopping the killing in Ukraine…??? How can Russia negotiate a ceasefire or a truce when all the previous agreements were violatef:
Minsk 1 & 2 and now this one with Iran, for reasons not under their control that do not have anything to do wirh the situation which this agreement resolved.