Democrats decades of bargaining have only empowered Irans tyrannical leaders and made us less safe
From Bill Clinton to Barack Obama to Joe Biden, Democratic presidents have been wooed by the false hope of a “grand bargain” with Iran.It has done nothing but embolden the mullahs and make Americans less safe, Kenneth R.
Timmerman writes in his new book, “The Iran House: Tales of Revolution, Persecution, War, and Intrigue,” out now.Here, the senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute, explains how things have gone wrong. For decades, Democrat Party power brokers have believed in the misguided dream that peace with Iran’s tyrannical leaders is possible — and instead made the world a more dangerous place. An early iteration of the pro-Tehran lobby was run by a former communist named Hooshang Amirahmadi.
His group, the American Iranian Congress, AIC, was launched in the mid-1990s and funded by energy company Conoco in the hopes they could convince President Bill Clinton to allow them to develop the massive oil and gas fields in Iran. Despite the imposition of US sanctions on trade with Iran since the hostage crisis of the 1970s, AIC and like-minded groups continued to lobby in favor of doing business with Tehran. Clinton tried to negotiate a back-door deal with Tehran just before the 2000 election. If it had been successful, the pact not only would have lifted sanctions and reopened US trade with Iran, but would have paid Iran billions of dollars as “reimbursements.” The deal died, but the dream didn’t. While George W.Bush was in power, Iranian groups continued to cultivate Democrats with an eye on a grand bargain. In 2002, a doctor named Sadegh Namazi-khah hosted a fundraiser in California that raised $30,000 for then-Sen.
Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.Biden was then chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. “The senator said that Iran always wanted to be an ally of the United States and to have good relations with the US,” one participant said. Sen.
John Kerry (D-Mass.) was another prominent supporter of ...