Biden pc low now – election, normalization deal
Ghosh 6/24 – Bobby Ghosh is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering foreign affairs. Previously, he was editor in chief at Hindustan Times, managing editor at Quartz and international editor at Time, (“Bobby Ghosh: Biden can’t just slip a new Iran deal past Congress”, 6/24/23, https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/world_news/bobby-ghosh-biden-can-t-just-slip-a-new-iran-deal-past-congress/article_aef7c11d-79a0-5414-8ae6-a5ee6093dccf.html)//CG
More significantly, the U.S. is offering Iran the opportunity to export more oil if it will limit its uranium-enrichment levels and cooperate more fully with United Nations nuclear monitors. But the Biden administration is leery of using the “D” word to describe such a bargain. “Rumors about a nuclear deal, interim or otherwise, are false and misleading,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists recently. “Our position on the question has not changed.”
In briefings with journalists, official have used expressions like “mini-agreement” and “interim arrangement.” But this is too cute by half and fools nobody. Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, knows a deal when he sees one; he has told his officials that they can go ahead and make an agreement, providing the regime gets to keep its nuclear infrastructure. So does Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, the country with the most to fear from an unshackled Iran. He has told the Biden administration that he opposes “mini-agreements.”
What’s in a word? The answer: Congressional oversight. The Biden folks know that any deal with the Islamic Republic would need to be submitted to the legislative branch, where it would meet substantial bipartisan opposition from lawmakers who want tighter restraints on Iran. Surmounting such resistance would require the investment of political capital by a president who must husband what little he has for a long reelection campaign.
The nub is the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which was passed in 2015, just as the U.S. and other world powers were putting the finishing touches on the deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Having bypassed Congress in making that deal, President Barack Obama agreed to let lawmakers review the terms after the fact. Obama’s egregious misuse of executive power allowed his successor, Donald Trump, to torch the deal three years later.
Transparent as it is, the administration’s ruse reflects poorly on Biden. Presidents ignoring Congress on Iran policy is what brought us to this sorry pass in the first place.