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Numerous reports have been leaking out for several weeks now, that the administration is perilously close to agreeing to a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that Seoul and Washington have been working together to release approximately 7 billion dollars in Iranian assets, in the event of that agreement.

We all know that this would simply serve to enrich, enable and empower this brutal, tyrannical regime, which has terrorist proxies around the globe. Iran has one of the worst human rights records in the world. It has been engaged in a brutal crackdown, arresting over 20,000 of its own freedom-loving dissidents, murdering at least 500 on the street, and hanging at least 7. that we know of, from the public square. We all know that Iran has been providing Russia with drones to execute its brutal war against the people of Ukraine, and is perilously close to the possession of several nuclear bombs. This new deal takes the 2015 threshold at 3.67 percent of highly enriched uranium and has increased it to a 60 percent threshold, (dangerously close to the 90 percent necessary for nuclear weaponry). Although traces of highly enriched uranium have been found in several Iranian nuclear sites at the 83.7 percent level, this agreement relies basically on trust, something that the Islamic Republic of Iran has not proven worthy of.

Is the Biden White House perilously close to a nuclear deal with Iran? And what can the US Congress, and we, the American people do about it?

About the speaker: Richard Goldberg is a senior advisor at FDD. From 2019-2020, Richard served as the Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the White House National Security Council. He previously served as chief of staff for Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and deputy chief of staff and senior foreign policy adviser to former U.S. Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois in both the U.S. House and Senate.

As a staff associate for the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations, Richard worked on a wide range of issues related to U.S. foreign assistance, including foreign military financing, international security assistance, international peacekeeping, development, global health and economic support funds. He was a founding staff director of the House U.S.-China Working Group and was among the first Americans ever to visit China’s human space launch center. A leader in efforts to expand U.S. missile defense cooperation with Israel, Richard played a key role in U.S. funding for the Arrow-3 program, Iron Dome and the deployment of an advanced missile defense radar to the Negev Desert.

In the Senate, Richard emerged as a leading architect of the toughest sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was the lead Republican negotiator for three rounds of sanctions targeting the Central Bank of Iran, the SWIFT financial messaging service, and entire sectors of the Iranian economy. Richard also drafted and negotiated legislation promoting human rights and democracy in Iran, including sanctions targeting entities that provide the Iranian regime with the tools of repression. His Iran sanctions work was featured in the book The Iran Wars.

As the governor’s chief of staff, Richard managed government in America’s fifth-largest state with oversight of all day-to-day operations, including homeland security, public safety, and public health. He also spearheaded the first-ever state legislation to divest public pension funds from companies engaged in boycotts of Israel, which sparked a nationwide initiative in state capitols around America.