Some Western leaders are ‘divorced from reality’ with regard to Palestinians, Iran

Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in prison this week for planning a bomb attack in Paris. His sentencing comes at a time when Europeans and the new U.S. administration are intent on revisiting the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

On Thursday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that there needs to be a shift from former U.S. President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran to a “maximum diplomacy” one.

“U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA and ‘maximum pressure’ policy, including secondary sanctions, had a negative impact,” Borrel said. “The JCPOA could not reach its full potential – including in the economic field,” Borrell added.

Victoria Coates, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and former deputy national security adviser for Middle Eastern and North African Affairs, told JNS she believes there is a “disconnect” in the halls of European and the U.S. governments.

“They think they can have some kind of diplomatic relationship with this terrorist rogue regime,” she said. “It’s completely divorced from reality. I hope they accept reality before we have a more violent and disruptive wake-up call.”

The Biden administration has been moving forward on getting started on revamping U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Middle East.

On Friday, Secretary of State Tony Blinken was set to discuss Iran as well as other foreign policy challenges with Britain, France and Germany.  The National Security Council also met at the White House to discuss Iran as well.

The day before, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced that the Biden administration is ceasing all support for the Saudi-led offensive against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. While this may be seen favorably by Iran, the Biden administration and Democrats have long been critical of the Saudis conduct in Yemen, which human-rights groups have accused of engaging in war crimes.

Nevertheless, Iran’s support for the Houthis is part of its larger regional strategy of backing terror groups that have only inflamed conflicts around the Middle East from Syria, Lebanon and Iraq to Gaza.

Coates noted the “disconnect from reality” in the Biden administration, with Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken talking about removing the Houthis from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list. The Trump administration designated the Iranian-backed militia in the final days in office.

Len Khodorkovsky, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for digital strategy and senior adviser to the U.S. special representative for Iran, told JNS there is “good reason” to view the Biden administration officials who have worked in the Middle East with suspicion because “their track record has been disastrous.”

Indeed, Robert Malley, U.S. President Joe Biden’s new Iran envoy, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman were both heavily involved in the 2015 nuclear deal, and their return to positions of influence have raised concerns among experts that they will once again seek to mollify Iran at any cost.

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