Here I thought I was just amusing myself by invoking Robert Gover’s One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding, but no. The Biden administration’s $6 billion deal with Iran appears to be subject to the kind of misunderstanding that vexed the protagonists in Gover’s cult classic.
According to the Biden administration, the use of the $6 billion is subject to severe constraints. It can’t be used to support the mullahs’ nuclear weapons program. It can’t be used to support the mullahs’ terrorist network around the world. It can’t be used to support the IRGC. It can’t be used to suppress the Iranian people. It can only be used for sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows.
Biden and his administration think we are stupid. They think we don’t understand that money is fungible. They think we can’t see through the absurdity of its public line.
The mullahs won’t even say thanks. They refuse to accommodate Biden’s fig leaf. They will take the cash and let the credit go.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi says the Iranian government will spend the $6 billion “wherever we need it.” But of course.
Raisi’s explanation was not confined to the Iranian press. Rather, he chose to pipe up in an interview with NBC News yesterday after the Biden administration disclosed the deal to Congress on 9/11. We are to release five Iranian criminals from prison while the Iranians are to release five unidentified (assumedly dual American/Iranian citizens) guilty of traveling to Iran. The $6 billion is Iran’s price for the deal.
“This money belongs to the Iranian people, the Iranian government, so the Islamic Republic of Iran will decide what to do with this money,” Raisi said Tuesday. “Humanitarian means whatever the Iranian people needs, so this money will be budgeted for those needs and the needs of the Iranian people will be decided and determined by the Iranian government.”
In the New York Post today former NSC official Richard Goldberg adds this: “Biden has a secret, illegal deal with Iran that gives mullahs everything they want.” I’m afraid we will have to return to this subject.
Raisi quotes via Anders Hagstrom/Fox News.
There is no prisoner swap with Iran. There is a trade of 5 US citizens for dangerous criminals & $6 billion.
There is no standalone hostage deal. There is a new phase in a larger deal.
$10 billion from Iraq. $7 billion IMF. Billions more in oil exports. Much more still to come.
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) September 12, 2023
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