Koch, Soros back secret initiative to revive Iran nuclear deal

FPI / February 17, 2023

Geostrategy-Direct

George Soros, Charles Koch, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund are bankrolling progressive activists aiming to revive the Iran nuclear deal despite the Teheran regime's violent crackdown on weeks-long, nationwide protests in Iran, a Feb. 6 report said.

The secret initiative plans to tie the nuclear deal to the ongoing Iranian human rights movement, according to internal correspondence obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Groups including J Street, NIAC Action, the Open Society Foundations, Human Rights Watch, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund are rallying behind a plan to lobby lawmakers to use human rights legislation as cover to revive nuclear deal negotiations with the ruling clerics in Teheran, according to a January email sent from a J Street lobbyist to other activists which was obtained by the Free Beacon.

"I'm writing to suggest that this group convene virtually next week to brainstorm and hopefully find consensus on the elements of legislation to support the Iranian people that we could propose to diplomacy-oriented lawmakers," J Street's Dylan Williams wrote. "Given the usual need to be discrete [sic], the charged nature of the topic, and the outrageous threats against several members of this group, please do keep this initiative close-hold," he added.

The activist groups "plan to pursue a dual-track legislative agenda, where they would find a way through legislation to give pro-deal Democrats cover by supporting Iranian women and Iranian human rights, without in any way challenging the revival of a nuclear deal, while at the same time building a coalition of members of the House and Senate willing to write a very public letter to the president urging him to keep the door to diplomacy over on the nuclear file," a source familiar with the discussions told the Free Beacon.

In Washington, meanwhile, the Biden administration has renewed a series of waivers on sanctions that permit Iran and Russia to cooperate on nuclear work at Iranian enrichment sites, according to a non-public notification sent to Congress and obtained by the the Free Beacon.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken authorized the waivers on Jan. 31, but Congress was not notified of the decision until late on Feb. 3, after the Free Beacon began making inquiries about the exemptions. Senior congressional sources said the Biden administration is trying to sweep the sanctions waivers under the rug amid renewed concerns about Iran and Russia's military alliance.

The waivers will potentially provide billions in profit for Russian-state controlled firms, such as the Rosatom nuclear company, for work at Iran's Fordow nuclear plant, a contested military site suspected of housing Teheran's nuclear weapons program.

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