Biden Administration Should Halt Nuclear Negotiations with Iran Amid Protests

For a little over a week, there have been protests in Iran following the death of a young woman named Mahsa Amini. 

During a visit to Tehran with her family, she had been detained by Iran's morality police for not wearing her hijab in accordance with their standards. While in police custody, Amini died under suspicious circumstances and witnesses have indicated Amini was physically tortured and this treatment led to her death. For their part, Iranian authorities claim the 22-year old Amini suffered a heart attack. Amini's father does not believe the Iranian regime. Nor do millions of Iranians who have taken to the streets to protest. Unlike previous protests against the Iranian regime, many of these protests have been organized by women. Many of these women are burning their hijabs and cutting their hair. 

During his address to the UN General Assembly last week, President Biden said, "And today, we stand with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights." This is a marked improvement over the stance of former President Obama. When there were public protests in Iran following the controversial 2009 "elections", Obama pointedly refused to stand with the protesters because he did not want the United States to be seen as "meddling" in Iranian affairs. Obama was also desperate the attain a nuclear agreement with Iran and would do so in 2015. Defeated former President Trump would withdraw from that agreement in 2018. 

The Biden Administration wants to re-enter a nuclear agreement with Iran. I thought the Iran nuclear agreement was a bad idea a decade ago and I think it is a bad idea now. The reality though is the Biden Administration is pursuing it. During an appearance on CBS' Face the Nation this morning, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the Biden Administration would continue to pursue a nuclear agreement with Iran:

We’re talking about diplomacy to prevent Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon. If we can succeed in that effort, and we are determined to succeed in that effort, the world, America and our allies will be safer. And that will not stop us in any way from pushing back and speaking out on Iran’s brutal repression of its citizens and its women. We can and will do both.

As I seem to recall, American diplomacy with North Korea did not prevent that regime from developing a nuclear weapon. So I dispute Sullivan's thesis that another Iran nuclear agreement will make us safer. But the fact the Biden Administration is continuing to pursue a nuclear agreement with Iran at a time when Iran is publicly suppressing dissent effectively rewards the regime's behavior. 

I say this with the understanding that the Iranian regime has been behaving like this since it took power in 1979 and there are probably tens of thousands of Mahsa Amini's in graves all over the country. But with this uprising there is a chance the Iranian regime could fall. Continuing to pursue the agreement only prolongs its legitimacy. Should there be more public bloodshed at the hands of the Iranian regime continuing negotiations would be untenable.

Under the present circumstances, the time has come for the Biden Administration to halt negotiations with Iran.