Stymied by Trump, Iran now demands reparations from Biden

FPI / February 10, 2021

After President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, he imposed crippling sanctions which devastated the Islamic Republic's nuclear aspirations as well as much of their state-sponsored terrorism.

Now, the ruling mullahs in Iran are demanding that Joe Biden compensate them for Trump's "maximum pressure" effort to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons and advancing their strategic ambitions at the expense of regional security.

Iran is not only pushing Biden to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, but wants "reparations" for the "damage" caused by Trump's sanctions, a report said.

"In recent weeks, Iran has been implementing a policy of 'maximum/wise resistance,' manifested in 'maximum pressure' on the U.S. and the international community in a range of arenas," the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported on Feb.5.

"This policy is aimed at causing the Biden administration to lift all sanctions on Iran and compensate it for the damage they caused; leverage Iran's nuclear accomplishments to date to gain additional ones; and have Iran recognized as a nuclear threshold state with the ability to produce a nuclear bomb within a short time, in order to move towards a nuclear balance of terror in the Middle East, to block European initiatives to include the issue of Iran's ballistic missile development and its expansion in the region in a new agreement, and to ensure the continued existence of the Iranian regime," the report said.

The Iranian regime "assesses that it can force the Biden administration to agree to upgrade Iran's nuclear status. That is to say, the Obama administration recognized Iran's right to enrich uranium with a full nuclear fuel cycle, and now the Biden administration can be led to consent to a nuclear balance of terror in the Middle East, as part of which Iran will have nuclear weapons for 'defensive purposes,' " said the MEMRI report.

Recent reports have noted that the Biden team has signaled its intention to return to the Iran nuclear deal from which Trump withdrew and that Biden-Iran contacts already are under way.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has authorized the renewal of talks with the Biden administration. In in a speech on Jan. 8 in which he set out the outline of the negotiations and Iran's demands, Khamenei said: "The Western front and our enemies must end this cruel move – meaning the sanctions on the Iranian nation – and stop this immediately. They are required to lift all the sanctions... Of course, I have said this many times, and I will reiterate: They [the West] must lift the sanctions..."

The MEMRI report noted: "It should be emphasized that Iran's nuclear program is the Iranian regime's national project, and that all political streams – ideologues, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the government of President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif – are fully on board with it. The 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, arrived at with the Obama administration, was achieved through full planning, consent, and coordination of the entire Iranian regime elite, with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's consultation and oversight throughout, with the aim of improving revolutionary Iran's strategic status."

Free Press International