After the administration of US President Joe Biden officially used the satellite services and satellite Internet services of businessman Elon Musk to support Iranians’ demonstrations against the regime, Biden made a bizarre pledge to “liberate Iran.”

During a rally of his party’s candidates in California’s midterm congressional elections on November 3, 2022, Biden said, “Don’t worry, we’re going to liberate Iran,” to applause from the audience, but added, “The citizens of Iran will liberate themselves very soon.”

Biden stopped there and did not mention further measures the White House could take to support the protesters and “liberating Iran.”

 

New Plans

Biden’s remarks surprised many and angered Tehran’s top leaders, but they raised questions about how Washington would deal with the regime and Iranians in the future, especially in light of the escalation of protests that have been going on for nearly two months.

In his speech marking the 43rd anniversary of the occupation of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi responded to Biden’s remarks on November 4, 2022, by mocking him that his country had been “liberated” from the United States 43 years earlier.

“Iran will not be your captive, and the great Iranian people will not kneel before you,” Raisi said, referring to Biden’s remarks about the “wandering of mind they are experiencing.”

Experts and observers have interpreted Biden’s remarks as either a “slip of the tongue,” as he used to make inaccurate statements that the White House retracted because of his old age. Or he implicitly revealed, perhaps unintentionally, new US plans to come against the Tehran regime, especially as talks on the nuclear deal have stalled, and relations have been strained by rumors of an Iranian role in arming Russia after its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

In return, Iran asked Russia to support it in manufacturing uranium used in its nuclear reactors, CNN reported on November 5, 2022.

In this context, Israeli President Isaac Herzog traveled at a surprising time to Washington, following US reports of Tehran’s support for Moscow, to present Biden on October 25, 2022, what he claimed was “evidence” of Iran’s support for Russia militarily in Ukraine.

It was striking after the Iranian denial, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian admitted for the first time that his country had supplied Russia with drones, but before Moscow’s war on Ukraine and the bombing of Kyiv with Iranian-made drones, according to the Associated Press on November 5, 2022.

 

Satisfying the Audience

Barbara Slavin, director of the Atlantic Council’s Future of Iran Initiative, told Al-Hurra on November 4, 2022, that “Biden may have mistaken the expression and choice of words, and that he wanted to please the Iranian-Americans who were present.”

White House spokesman John Kirby confirmed this on November 4, 2022, by saying that “President Biden was expressing his solidarity with protesters in Iran by saying in front of a crowd of his supporters, ‘We will liberate Iran.’”

But Kirby’s comment did not clarify what Biden meant by “liberating Iran.” He did not say it was a slip of the tongue or clarify whether there were US political, military or space plans to overthrow power in Iran, though he made clear that they do not indicate a new approach.

Kirby continued: “What we are focused on is making sure that we’re holding the [Iranian] regime accountable for the way they’re treating peaceful protesters in their country.”

Despite Biden’s statement, Kirby said the United States had no indications that the Iranian regime was on the verge of change, CNN reported on November 4, 2022.

Slavin believes that “the Biden administration’s policy toward Iran has not changed, and it believes that it is ultimately the Iranian people who decide the fate of their country.”

However, the American expert on Iran explains, “The Biden administration has provided and will do more to encourage Iranian protesters, including punishing human rights violators and trying to expel Tehran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.”

It also eases restrictions on the provision of cutting-edge technology in order to reduce the influence of authorities in controlling access to the Internet, says Slavin.

The US government has previously given the green light to the owner of the satellite internet, Musk, to activate the Starlink satellite Internet service to support the popular movement in Iran against the regime.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced measures to promote internet freedom and the free flow of information to the Iranian people, saying, “We have issued a public license to provide them with greater access to digital communications to counter the censorship of the Tehran government.”

Musk, the telecommunications giant, responded by announcing on September 23, 2022, that Iran’s coverage of the Starlink satellite Internet service had been activated to challenge Tehran’s shutdown.

 

Plans Against Iran

Biden’s talk of “liberating Iran” coincided with Time magazine’s assertion that “Iran is actually seeking a nuclear weapon, and that a new comprehensive strategy or action plan against Tehran is needed.”

On November 4, 2020, it explained that “Iranian policymakers are becoming more and more transparent and saying that Tehran is not maneuvering with threats to develop a nuclear weapon, and that it wants an actual nuclear weapon and a factor to strengthen its deterrent forces.”

Iran sees its first priority, more than strengthening its influence in the Middle East or developing its economy, is to preserve the regime itself, and because it is fighting a major internal insurgency, it sees nuclear weapons as providing the best deterrent to ensure its survival against external threats.

The author of the Time report, Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and former US deputy intelligence for the Near East, stressed that “a new US strategy toward Iran is needed.”

“For nearly a decade, the strategy under Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and now Biden has been about the 2015 JCPOA, whether for or against it,” he explained.

But as the JCPOA comes to an end to an increasing probability, a new comprehensive strategy toward Iran is urgently needed with Tehran “really wanting a nuclear weapon.” Addressing the threat posed by its proxies and conventional weapons to US regional allies, and forging a meaningful US response to protests against the Iranian regime.

Panikoff called on the United States to start annual joint military exercises with Israel to simulate a strike on Iran in which it would not only refuel Israel’s planes but also deploy US fighter jets and modernize the defenses of regional allies.

The Time report coincided with confirmation by US intelligence officials that Tehran had applied for help from Russia to boost its nuclear program, which would boost Tehran’s efforts to produce a nuclear weapon, especially after talks to revive the deal with the West stalled.

 

Confidential Assistance

On November 4, 2022, CNN quoted informed sources as saying that intelligence indicates that Tehran has requested Moscow’s assistance to obtain additional nuclear materials and manufacture nuclear fuel.

US officials told the network that “the Iranian proposal came in light of an expanded partnership between Iran and Russia, which in recent months included Tehran sending drones and other equipment to Moscow, to be used in its war against Ukraine.”

But CNN reported that “it is not clear whether Russia has agreed to provide assistance or not, even though Moscow has long opposed Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon.”

According to the network, the White House is watching with concern any new areas of cooperation between Iran and Russia, noting that any “covert” Russian assistance to Iran could boost Tehran’s efforts to produce a nuclear weapon, and also constitute a major shift in Russian policy.

It quoted National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson as saying the United States would be “resolute in the face of any cooperation that goes against our nuclear nonproliferation goals.”

There is currently a stalemate in indirect talks between Tehran and Washington on reviving the deal, and officials have said an important sticking point is hampering those efforts: an Iranian demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency end an investigation into uranium relics found at undisclosed sites.

The 2015 deal allowed Iran’s sanctions to be lifted in exchange for reducing its nuclear activities and ensuring the peacefulness of its program, but the United States withdrew from it in 2018 under its former president Trump, reimposing sanctions on Tehran, which responded by gradually reneging on most of its commitments.