UANI Opposes Possible Economic Lifelines To Iranian Regime

(New York, N.Y.) – United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Chairman Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace released the following joint statement today reiterating opposition to any effort to prematurely provide an economic lifeline to the Iranian regime through sanctions relief, the unfreezing of assets, or approval of loans unless and until there are verifiable concessions or behavior changes from the Iranian regime:

“The Biden Administration’s reported willingness to consider providing the Iranian regime an economic lifeline is deeply concerning. UANI supports the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), but using the SHTA to provide a cash infusion to the leadership in Tehran is unjustified and unacceptable. So, too, would be approval of any loan to the Iranian regime through the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Iran’s regime has a long history and track record of illicitly diverting humanitarian assistance from the Iranian people to themselves and their terrorist agents.

“It is Iran, not the United States, that should demonstrate its goodwill. The regime regularly attacks U.S. armed forces and U.S. allies in the region directly and through its terrorist proxies, leads attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, denies inspectors access to its nuclear sites, and has brazenly accelerated its uranium enrichment and ballistic missile activities. Sanctions relief is not a gift; it must be earned.

“Further, if Iran is in a humanitarian crisis, that is the regime’s fault, and it is the regime that must cease its regional aggression and support of terrorism and reprioritize its spending to increase aid to Iranians. It should listen to the Iranian people, who protest the funding of Hezbollah and Hamas, and should reduce the role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), instead of empowering it with billions of U.S. dollars and euros and increasing the budget for Basij forces which are infamous for attacking Iranian civilians. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can end the corruption that saw more than a billion euros in hard currency allocated for medical supplies disappear. And he can access the more than $200 billion under his direct control or from Iran’s sovereign-wealth fund, from which he has withdrawn nearly $4 billion since 2019 for defense spending and military operations.

“Under no circumstances should the U.S. or our allies offer economic relief to the Iranian regime until it ends its malign behavior, and then only under an agreement with the legal standing of a treaty between the U.S. and Iran.”

To read UANI’s Iran Sanctions: Fact or Fiction resource, please click here.

To read UANI’s What’s Wrong With The Iran Nuclear Deal resource, please click here.