The undoing of several key containment policies directed at the Islamic Republic of Iran by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris has played a significant role in the outbreak of war once again in the Middle East. Biden and Harris’s reversal of these measures has directly resulted in Iran being able to rebuild its military capabilities through the sale of oil and weapons technologies to other countries hostile to Western interests.

Additionally, by lifting political and economic pressure on Iran, the Biden-Harris government has allowed for the proliferation and rearmament of Iranian terrorist proxies throughout the region, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The rearmament of these three terror groups culminated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack against Israel, which saw nearly 1,200 Israelis killed by a gunman who mostly paraglided into the Jewish state from Gaza.

Following the October 7 terror attacks, Hezbollah and the Houthis have repeatedly fired rockets and missiles at Israel as the Jewish state invaded Gaza to rescue hostages taken by Hamas and destroy the group’s leadership. In conjunction, the Houthis have also waged a terror campaign against international shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The conflict has now escalated to the point where Iran has twice fired on Israel using rockets, drones, and ballistic missiles. Meanwhile, Israel remains bogged down fighting Hamas in Gaza and is launching a ground invasion of Lebanon in the hopes of destroying Hezbollah.

TRUMP’S SANCTIONS.

Enacted under President Donald J. Trump, the United States in 2019 issued comprehensive sanctions against the Iranian regime—notably also targeting other countries that purchased the rogue nation’s oil. The sanctions regime established under Trump crippled the Iranian economy and proved to be far more successful than those used by his predecessors—which mainly targeted Iranian imports, political leaders, and domestic Iranian oil producers.

Trump’s decision to target nations and companies purchasing oil from Iran had a dramatic effect on the country’s ability to export petroleum. Iran went from exporting roughly 1.8 million barrels of crude oil daily in 2017 to a historic low of under 500,000 barrels per day in 2020. In addition, the Trump sanctions cut Iran’s GPD nearly in half between 2017 and 2020, dropping from almost $500 billion to just $240 billion.

While Iran’s economy—especially its energy sector—was ravaged by the Trump sanctions, some of the biggest were actually Chinese refiners and shipping companies exporting the Middle Eastern nation’s oil. By targeting the buyers, Trump was able to deliver a far more effective and crippling blow to Iran—depleting its ability to use economic growth and its vast access to oil to replenish its terror proxies following their exhaustion in the Syrian Civil War.

Following the 2020 election, the Biden-Harris government moved to quickly recend much of Trump’s sanctions regime. Currently, Iran exports around 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, and its GDP has recovered to $413 billion by 2022.

THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS. 

Another critical achievement by President Trump—later abandoned in part by Biden and Harris—is the Middle East’s Abraham Accords. A series of bilateral agreements, the accords saw the normalization of political and economic relations between Israel and the countries of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

The Abraham Accords, beyond building ties between Israel and the two Gulf Arab states, created an environment of renewed cooperation between the Jewish state and its neighbors, including Jordan and Egypt. Additionally, the historic agreements opened the door to possible normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. This achievement would have resulted in Iran’s near total regional isolation.

Despite the progress under Trump, the Biden-Harris government’s more friendly stance towards Iran saw further developments stemming from the accords halted. Likewise, the October 7 Hamas terror attacks against Israel and the Jewish state’s subsequent invasion of Gaza saw hopes of normalization with Saudi Arabia almost entirely abandoned by the Biden-Harris State Department.

BIDEN-HARRIS ENDS TRUMP’S PEACE. 

One of the most overlooked impacts the Biden-Harris government has had on Middle East stability was their disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which likely emboldened Russia to launch its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The protected conflict in Eastern Europe has contributed significantly to the Iranian economy, with the Islamic country on pace to replace Russia as the leading arms exporter around the globe.

Iran has supplied—at great profit—Russia with a bevy of HESA Shahed 136 loitering munitions. Essentially a “suicide drone,” the HESA Shahed 136 can hover far above a battlefield until a target is located. Subsequently, the drone will dive on the target and explode—aiming to eliminate or disable the combatant.

The Biden-Harris government’s stance of prolonging the Russia-Ukraine war through frequent arms transfers to Ukraine has also served to enrich Iran as a critical supplier of armaments to Russia.

In addition to Russia, Iran has supplied the Sudanese military with numerous Mohajer-6 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for use in its ongoing civil war. Other nations purchasing Iranian drone technology include Bolivia, Venezuela, Ethiopia, and rebel groups in the Western Sahara region.

Unfortunately, the Biden-Harris government has been unable to curb Iranian military technology sales.

IRANIAN INFLITRATION?

The last policy divergence between the Biden-Harris government and President Donald Trump is perhaps the most concerning. After taking the White House in the 2020 election, it appears an Iranian influence operation set up shop in the new Biden-Harris government. Several individuals with ties to the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI) – a foreign influence operation controlled by the Iranian regime’s Foreign Ministry – managed to effectively infiltrate the United States government and even become aides to President Biden’s own special envoy on Iran, Robert Malley.

At least two of the members of the IEI influence operation who worked for Robert Malley were able to penetrate the U.S. government’s fairly extensive background check system – especially for those who work in sensitive national security positions. One of the individuals, Ariane Tabatabai, was even able to work under Malley at the U.S. State Department. At the same time, Ali Vaez served as an unofficial advisor after failing to attain a security clearance.

After evidence emerged that Malley had mishandled classified documents stored on his personal phone and that a foreign actor (likely Iran) had accessed those documents, the envoy saw his security clearance suspended. Additionally, The National Pulse reported in July that Philip H. Gordon, Kamala Harris’s national security advisor, appears to have concerning ties to the same Iranian influence operation as Malley. Meanwhile, Harris’s running mate, Governor Tim Walz (D-MN), attained a perfect rating from the Iran lobby while serving in Congress from 2007 until 2019.

IRAN SEES TRUMP AS A THREAT.

With Trump running again for the White House in the 2024 election, Iran has ramped up efforts to prevent his electoral victory. Iranian hackers have sent stolen Trump campaign communications and documents to numerous corporate media outlets and the Biden and Harris presidential campaigns. In September, an Iranian-hacked vetting document pertaining to Trump’s running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), was published by far-left blogger Ken Klippenstein.

Most concerningly, U.S. government intelligence agencies have confirmed that Iran is actively plotting to assassinate Trump to prevent him from returning to the presidency. Would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh—who made an attempt on the former president’s life in mid-September, is known to have communicated with individuals in Iran while faking documents for Afghan soldiers to enter Ukraine to aid in that country’s war effort against Russia.