The Biden-Harris administration recently renewed a sanctions waiver for Iran’s state-controlled broadcaster, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which publishes antisemitic and anti-Israel content.
The State Department informed Congress in a non-public notification on Aug. 9 that it will continue to allow the IRIB to conduct financial transactions to keep its television, radio and news services going, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Monday.
The regime’s propaganda arm has faced criticism since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre for promoting radical and violent ideologies, including supporting incitement and terrorism against Israel and American interests in the Middle East.
It marks the first time that the Biden-Harris administration has waived the sanctions since the Hamas terrorist group started a war with Israel, which has expanded to Iran and its other regional terror proxies. The last time the waiver was renewed was in February 2023.
In November 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the IRIB and six individuals associated with it, for its involvement in the Iranian government’s censorship activities. The IRIB forced and broadcast hundreds of confessions from people detained by the Islamic Republic.
Foggy Bottom’s move is facing increasing scrutiny from Republicans on Capitol Hill, who are demanding answers.
“The Biden-Harris administration’s appeasement of the Iranian regime knows no bounds, even while the regime and its proxies are launching daily attacks against American troops and our allies,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Free Beacon.
“The administration has allowed over $100 billion to flow to the ayatollah, which he pours into nuclear development, terrorism, and propaganda, all of which is also supposed to be subject to sanctions—which the administration is also waiving or refusing to enforce,” he said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken personally signed off on the decision, arguing that it is “vital to the national security of the United States.” A State Department spokesman made similar remarks in a statement to the Free Beacon, saying that the waiver “is made with the U.S. national interest in mind.”
The statement continued: “While this narrow waiver allows for the provision of satellite broadcast services to IRIB, IRIB itself and its senior leadership … remain subject to U.S. sanctions under various authorities, including for their involvement in censorship and human rights abuses.”
As part of the waiver, Iran’s state broadcaster will be able to engage in transactions necessary to “establish and maintain ground and satellite connectivity with the IRIB.”
Press TV is an IRIB-controlled outlet that broadcasts in English, and the channel is described as giving “a platform to a wide array of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and Holocaust deniers.” It has spent the months since the Oct. 7 attack promoting anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric.
Iran is attempting to sabotage the election campaign of former U.S. President Donald Trump through coordinated online activities, according to an American intelligence agency source who spoke to The Wall Street Journal.
The assessment revealed by intelligence officials to the newspaper differs from previous assessments suggesting that Iran seeks to act as a “chaos agent” within the United States. It now appears that Tehran is explicitly aiming to undermine Trump’s chances of being elected, due to concern he would adopt a harsher stance toward Tehran.
According to the source, Iran is using “a broad network of online figures and propaganda agents to spread disinformation” and is also conducting separate, funded campaigns online aimed at hurting Trump’s electoral bid.
At the time of the November 2023 sanctions, Blinken issued a statement saying that the United States is committed to supporting the Iranian people who were then participating in protests against the regime nationwide.
“IRIB acts not as an objective media outlet but rather as a key tool in the Iranian government’s mass suppression and censorship campaign against its own people. IRIB has broadcasted forced confessions of Iranian, dual national and foreign national detainees in Iran in attempts to distort facts and spread disinformation about the ongoing protests in Iran,” he said.
