WH Plays Word Games on Iran Sanctions: Didn’t ‘Lift’ Any, but ‘Waived’ $16-18 Billion of Them

Craig Bannister | October 2, 2024
DONATE
Text Audio
00:00 00:00
Font Size

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeated the Biden-Harris administration’s carefully worded – but misleading – claim that President Joe Biden has not “lifted” a single sanction on Iran.

“This administration has not lifted a single sanction on Iran.  We cannot forget that.  Rather, we continue to increase pressure,” Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing, when asked if Biden was considering limiting Iran’s revenue by targeting their oil exports. “Our extensive sanctions on Iran remain in place,” Jean-Pierre added.

“We have not lifted any — a single sanction.  If anything, as I said moments ago, we increased pressure.  That’s what we have been doing,” Jean-Pierre repeated, responding to a question asking when Biden would cut off Iran’s $90 billion of annual revenue from its record oil exports.

Instead of answering the questions about when Biden would “cut off” Iran’s revenue, Jean-Pierre said that Biden had not “lifted” any sanctions on the terror-sponsoring nation.

While that may be true, the Biden-Harris administration has, in fact, suspended the effect and financial penalties of those sanctions by extending “waivers” – to the tune of $16-18 billion – as Fox News has reported:

“A Fox News Digital analysis, in combination with the FDD’s research, determined that Iran has received between $16 billion and $20 billion in sanctions waivers, with billions more gained through the sale of Iranian oil, which the U.S. has sanctioned but has not managed to totally prevent due to a mixture of lax government oversight and more sophisticated evasion methods. 

“That includes a $10 billion sanctions waiver so Iraq can trade to obtain electricity from Iran, a $6 billion sanctions waiver agreed for South Korea to transfer money in exchange for the release of five Americans and $3.8 billion gained through the sale of petrochemicals in order to dodge a Trump-era sanction.”

Biden extended the $10 billion waiver last November, then extended it again in March, despite concerns that Iran would use the money to continue funding terrorist operations, as the Washington Free Beacon explains:

“The sanctions waiver was last approved by the Biden administration in November and set to expire this month, putting the White House in a tight position as a mounting chorus of GOP lawmakers express concern about sanctions being bypassed. The authority granted in the latest waivers allows Iraq to convert dinars into Euros and transfer payments into Iranian banks accounts in Oman.

“Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress raised concerns about the waiver earlier this week, the Free Beacon reported, saying that sanctions should not be lifted on the hardline Iranian regime in light of its support for Hamas and other terrorist proxy groups waging war on Israel and American outposts in the region.”

This isn’t the first time Biden-Harris administration officials have used the misleading claim that the administration hasn’t “lifted” any Iran sanctions.

For example, State Department Spokesman Vedant Patel used the same language at a press event back in April:

“It’s important to remember that we have not lifted a single sanction on Iran. Rather, we continue to increase pressure.”

However, Patel took the misleading hair-splitting even further, saying that Biden didn’t “lift” sanctions, he merely allowed them to “expire.” When a reporter challenged him on the word play, Patel said:

“There is a technical difference between sanctions expiring or sunsetting versus actively making the policy decision to lift certain sanctions.”

“The point is that you could have made an active policy decision on snapback, which would have kept those sanctions in place,” the reporter noted.