Obama Is Saving Hezbollah!

Amid discussion of the negotiations between Iran and the West — the U.S. in particular — the media has reported that the Obama administration is set to lift limitations on certain Iranian assets frozen in D.C. in an effort to demonstrate good intentions. By doing this, the administration is acting as the savior of Hezbollah and all of Iran’s actors in the region! Here one might ask: How can this be?

Several days ago I had the chance to sit down with a high-level Arab official outside of London, and we discussed the Iranian-Western negotiations. This official told me that Iran’s aim with their new “open” discourse on the West, in particular the U.S., is not to stop their nuclear program, but rather to lessen the damage to their economy that resulted from Western sanctions. The official added that the Iranians are not hiding this and that they are saying that negotiations with the West must take place within a limited time framework that will guarantee that resolutions will be reached within three months to a year. This is because Tehran wants these resolutions to be reflected in the Iranian economy, which has already demonstrated positive gains due to optimism in the markets resulting from recent political news, such as Obama’s phone call with Rouhani and even the latest Geneva meeting.

The Arab official also mentioned that the extent of the damage to Iran’s economy resulting from Western, and especially American, sanctions is evident not only inside Iran but throughout the region, giving the example that “in 2012 Lebanon exported $3 billion worth of gold!” This high-level official also said that Hezbollah began importing Iranian gold in place of currency due to Iran’s economic crisis, adding, “From where else would Lebanon have been able to export $3 billion in gold?!” He also mentioned that the Obama administration is capable of monitoring this closely, whereas the economically deteriorating Iranian regime is no longer able to supply its regional ally Hezbollah with money, even though the latter is at war defending the Assad regime.

Strangely, and in spite of all of this, the Obama administration, in a politically idiotic move, is said to be intending to lift the necessary ban on Iran’s frozen assets in D.C. in an act of good will toward Tehran. This carries no guarantees that Tehran will halt the uranium production that will enable it to produce a nuclear bomb intended to completely change the playing field in the Middle East. There are many indications of this, whether on the part of Turkey, Saudi Arabia or even what’s going on in Egypt, all of which would of course require another article! Is it at all reasonable for Obama to facilitate Hezbollah’s mission, or rather to save it altogether, and grant Iran the exorbitant prices it wants? Meanwhile, it is completely within Obama’s ability to just wait a little longer for the economic sanctions to do what was hoped of them; in the meanwhile, the U.S. can purchase whatever it wants from Iran at the lowest prices, thereby ensuring the halt of uranium enrichment and disabling Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Thus the question is as such: Does Obama want to save the U.S. economy or the Iranian economy and Hezbollah along with it? Such political incompetence!