XPost: alt.politics.elections, alt.politics.trump, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   From: democrat-criminals@mail.house.gov   
      
   Administration has held secret talks with Russians to preempt future   
   Trump-like exit from accord, experts and former officials warn.   
      
   https://justthenews.com/government/security/amid-ukraine-crisis-biden-   
   partnering-russia-revive-iran-nuclear-deal   
      
   As President Biden condemns Russia's invasion of Ukraine and publicly   
   threatens Moscow with escalating punitive measures, his administration is   
   quietly collaborating with the Russians to revive the Iran nuclear deal   
   and undermine future U.S. presidents who might withdraw from it, according   
   to experts and former U.S. officials.   
      
   "The U.S. has partnered with Russia to get a new nuclear deal with Iran,"   
   said Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst who also served as a senior staffer   
   on both the House Intelligence Committee and the National Security   
   Council. "This includes secret talks with the Russians over the last year   
   and agreements where Russia would hold uranium enriched by Iran and give   
   it back to Iran if a future Republican president backed out of a new   
   nuclear deal."   
      
   Former President Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. The   
   agreement, which placed temporary restrictions on Iran's nuclear program   
   in exchange for lifting sanctions on Iran, was struck in 2015 and   
   implemented in 2016. Many experts and U.S. officials believe Iran seeks to   
   build nuclear weapons — a charge Tehran denies.   
      
   "The Biden administration has been working with Russia to get it to   
   undermine a future Republican president by helping Iran's nuclear   
   program," added Fleitz.   
      
   Richard Goldberg, who served on the National Security Council and worked   
   as a staffer in Congress for years, noted that under the deal being   
   negotiated "it appears Iran would send enriched uranium stockpiles to   
   Russia on condition Russia would return the stockpile if the U.S.   
   reimposes terrorism sanctions."   
      
   Earlier this year, the Biden administration said it was "aware" of a   
   Russian proposal for an interim nuclear deal with Iran without sharing   
   details, causing House Republicans to demand the administration share what   
   it knows.   
      
   "Russia sent a secret agreement to Iran," Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas)   
   said at the time. "Russia is trying to take the lead now in the   
   negotiations with Iran. This is a secret agreement. We haven't seen it."   
      
   The U.S. and Iran have been negotiating indirectly in Vienna over the   
   nuclear deal, allowing Russia to play an influential role with both sides   
   directly.   
      
   Gabriel Noronha, who served in the Trump administration as a special   
   adviser for Iran at the State Department, tweeted Wednesday that his   
   former career colleagues from the State Department, National Security   
   Council, and European Union are so concerned about the deal taking shape   
   in negotiations in Vienna that they shared with him details to publicize   
   in hopes that Congress will intervene.   
      
   "The entire negotiations have been filtered and 'essentially run' by   
   Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov," one of the officials said, according to   
   Noronha.   
      
   Biden's negotiating team in Vienna is led by Robert Malley, who, according   
   to Noronha, has proposed that the U.S. will remove Iran's Islamic   
   Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the Foreign Terrorist Organization   
   list and lift sanctions on it if the Iranians "simply promise to talk to   
   the United States in new negotiations about their 'regional activity' (aka   
   terrorism)."   
      
   Biden's team is also reportedly preparing to lift sanctions imposed by the   
   Trump administration on the office of Iran's supreme leader and those   
   associated with it.   
      
   These actions would fit with a report written by the Iranian Foreign   
   Ministry for Iran's parliament last summer.   
      
   In that report, Iranian officials wrote the Biden administration was   
   prepared to lift not only sanctions waived by the nuclear deal but also   
   the additional penalties imposed by the Trump administration. Among them   
   would be sanctions against Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the   
   U.S. designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization.   
      
   In other words, it appears the Biden administration isn't simply trying to   
   revive the original Iran nuclear deal; instead, it's negotiating one that,   
   experts warn, will be more advantageous to Iran.   
      
   The U.S. would "pay more up front with less time on the clock and less   
   lengthy restrictions on Iran's nuclear program," said Behnam Ben Taleblu,   
   a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.   
      
   Some of the deal's key restrictions on Iran's nuclear program expire   
   within the next decade.   
      
   Taleblu explained the regime is trying to build "financial armor" to   
   prepare for the event of the U.S. withdrawing from the deal after the 2024   
   election if a new U.S. president wishes to do so.   
      
   "Iran had a crash course in surviving maximum pressure" during the Trump   
   administration, "learned lessons from it, and is trying to financially   
   insulate itself as much as possible while retaining as much of its nuclear   
   program as possible," he said.   
      
   Russia doesn't want a nuclear-armed Iran, experts explained, but the   
   Kremlin does want a client-like state to its south — and the nuclear deal   
   helps make that happen.   
      
   Experts and former officials told Just the News that when sanctions were   
   first lifted under the nuclear deal in 2015-2016, Iran's repression   
   increased at home while its aggression increased abroad as the regime   
   allocated much of the money to its military and the IRGC.   
      
   "The Revolutionary Guards dominates the civilian economy," said Dr.   
   Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and currently a senior fellow at   
   the American Enterprise Institute. "They monopolize the oil industry,   
   manufacturing, and construction. By unfreezing assets, lifting sanctions,   
   and encouraging new investment, the Guards can expect a windfall, most of   
   which they will use to finance their ideological projects at home and   
   abroad. Expect terror attacks and insurgency to increase sharply."   
      
   Rubin also expressed concern about the Biden administration's   
   collaboration with Russia to secure a nuclear deal with Iran.   
      
   "It shows a tremendous lack of judgment and strategic seriousness," he   
   said. "If Iran is serious about a deal, they can talk to the Americans   
   directly, and if they will not, then let them languish under sanctions."   
      
   "But to put our strategic interests and those of our allies in the hands   
   of Russian negotiators is beyond belief," Rubin added. "We're not talking   
   Manchurian Candidate; we're in Manchurian Administration territory."   
      
   Rubin isn't alone.   
      
   "To think [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would be an honest broker   
   would be a strategic mistake," said Taleblu, who argued Russia has used   
   its influence in nuclear negotiations with Iran as leverage against the   
      
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