Biden’s Pinky-Promise Diplomacy With Iran

In the latest shameful concession by the Biden administration, U.S. envoy for Iran Robert Malley offered to delist the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization in exchange for a public commitment to not contribute to regional escalation. Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terror and uses the IRGC to train, equip, and enable its proxies and partners. According to the State Department (Malley’s employer) in 2020, the IRGC supported terrorism globally:

And yet, Malley is willing to accept a pinky promise that the IRGC will be on its very best behavior. Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told National Review that “a public commitment to de-escalation has absolutely no legal meaning whatsoever.” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, shared a similar view: “An agreement predicated on the promise of the IRGC, the engine of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs as well as the long arm of Tehran’s terror apparatus, changing its behavior for the better after being sanctions free and flush with cash would not be worth the paper it’s written on.”

About the Author

Carine Hajjar

Carine Hajjar, a former National Review intern, is a Joseph Rago Fellow at the Wall Street Journal.

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In the latest shameful concession by the Biden administration, U.S. envoy for Iran Robert Malley offered to delist the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization in exchange for a public commitment to not contribute to regional escalation. Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terror and uses the IRGC to train, equip, and enable its proxies and partners. According to the State Department (Malley’s employer) in 2020, the IRGC supported terrorism globally:

And yet, Malley is willing to accept a pinky promise that the IRGC will be on its very best behavior. Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told National Review that “a public commitment to de-escalation has absolutely no legal meaning whatsoever.” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, shared a similar view: “An agreement predicated on the promise of the IRGC, the engine of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs as well as the long arm of Tehran’s terror apparatus, changing its behavior for the better after being sanctions free and flush with cash would not be worth the paper it’s written on.”