Jamal Khashoggi was a fellow Muslim Brotherhood member who was murdered by agents from Saudi Arabia in horrific circumstances. The fallout in the American media was cataclysmic for the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia; two years after the murder, then-candidate Joe Biden issued a statement “mourning Khashoggi’s death” and calling for reassessment of the American relationship with the Kingdom.
This week, a 24-year-old Muslim American with connections to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attempted to murder famed author Salman Rushdie for writing “The Satanic Verses.” In 1989, the Iranian government issued its death sentence on Rushdie, encouraging anyone within its purview to kill him; in the aftermath of Rushdie’s stabbing — Rushdie ended up on a ventilator and will likely lose an eye — the Iranian government issued a statement blaming Rushdie “and his supporters…We believe that the insults made and the support he received was an insult against followers of all religions.”
The Justice Department charged a member from the IRGC with murdering John Bolton, a former national security adviser, just days before Rushdie’s attack. According to reports, the attempt was in retaliation against the American drone strike that killed Qasem Solimani (IRGC commander) in 2020. The suspect attempted to pay $300,000.
Few weeks prior, a man was found carrying a loaded AK-47 outside Masih Alinejad, an Iranian American journalist. Alinejad claims that the Iranian government had promoted widespread campaigns to kidnap her. Last year news was that four Iranians were arrested as they planned to carry out this same act.
Meanwhile, Iranian state media is calling for more violence; an editorial from Kayhan newspaper, the editor of which is chosen by the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated this week, “God has taken his revenge on Rushdie. The attack on him shows it is not a difficult job to take similar revenge on Trump and Pompeo and from now on they will feel more in danger for their lives.”
Biden’s administration has not responded to this. The White House released an extraordinarily tepid statement “reaffirm(ing) our commitment” to “Truth. Courage. Resilience.” Biden said that he stood “in solidarity with Rushdie and all those who stand for freedom of expression.” There was no talk of reevaluating America’s relationship with Iran.
The exact opposite is true. Biden’s administration wants to strike a nuke deal with Iran that will ease sanctions and give them the opportunity to develop a nuclear weapon. Instead of seeing the Iranian regime intransigently supporting international terrorism, from New York City to Yemen to Gaza Strip and Syria to Lebanon to Iraq to New York, the Biden White House believes it has to make a deal. The New York Times reported this week, “For the first time in many months, European officials expressed increasing optimism on Tuesday that a revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal may actually be agreed upon by Iran and the United States.”
Biden’s astonishing ineptitude to seek a signature form the Iranian regime, a regime that has the blood and sweat of thousands including Rushdie’s, is an example of the absurdly foolish pusillanimity this administration. The world’s most extremist regimes are also shown that a Democratic White House will tolerate radicalism as long the regimes offer a revised balance in power, consistent with Democratic shibboleths. Biden wants Iran at the centre of the revised Middle Eastern power balance. This is in keeping with former President Barack Obama’s stupid thought. He will therefore kowtow and break with the Saudis. The Biden government will give in if the Taliban are your target; Iran will be the next victim. It’s not just cowardice. It’s delusional cowardice. It’s dangerous not only for Rushdie, Bolton and Pompeo, but also to all who are opposed to America’s predatory policies.