Sludge reports the households of at least 28 U.S. senators—in both the Democratic and Republican caucuses—hold a combined minimum of $3.7 million and as much as $12.6 million in fossil fuel investments.

This week at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Biden assured world leaders that the United States would meet its ambitious pledge to slash its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

For Biden to achieve that, he will need members of Congress to pass legislation to restrict fossil fuels, an industry in which dozens of senators and their households are personally invested.

Sludge has obtained information revealing that the households of at least 28 U.S. senators— both Democrats and Republicans—hold a combined minimum of $3.7 million and as much as $12.6 million in fossil fuel investments.

“Of the 28 senators, at least 20 hold publicly traded stocks in companies like oil supermajor Chevron, pipeline giant Enterprise Products, or electric utility NextEra that belong to trade associations that are lobbying Congress against taking up strong legislation to curb polluting emissions,” the report said.

“Five senators are invested in energy funds built around oil and gas assets, and three own nonpublic stock in private fossil fuel companies. The investments, held by the senators, their spouse, jointly, or a dependent, are disclosed to the Senate Office of Public Records in very broad ranges and often buried in hundreds of pages of scanned paper forms, making a more precise count of their total value impossible.” The report added.

The senators disclose their investments, or those of their spouses, to the Senate Office of Public Records, but details are presented in a very broad manner and often buried in hundreds of pages of paper forms.

Ironically, at least half a dozen of the senators who are personally invested in the fossil fuel industry sit on environment- or climate-related committees in the upper chamber.

The household of Senator Joe Manchin, who is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has received over $1 million in income from Enersystems, a coal brokerage firm the Democratic senator established in the 1980s.
Manchin “has stripped the Democrats’ budget reconciliation bill of major climate programs that would have transitioned coal-fired plants like the one where the company, now run by his son, holds a prime fuel services contract,” the report said.

Other senators whose households are heavily invested in fossil fuels include, John Hickenlooper of Colorado holds up to $1 million in investments in Chevron and other companies, Tom Carper of Delaware holds as much as $274,000 in Chevron and Duke Energy shares; Gary Peters of Michigan owns up to $355,000 in NextEra, DTE Energy, and Pacific Gas & Electric stock.

Earlier this year, Common Dreams reported that six Democratic senators—Manchin, Chris Coons (Del.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), and Jon Tester (Mont.)—have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in combined campaign contributions from fossil fuel corporations, some of which have touted their purported support for climate action, over the past decade.

The senators have often worked to remove any environmental or clean energy provisions from budget reconciliation legislation to protect their personal investments.

For months, Biden had made no secret of the fact that he wanted to participate in the COP26 climate talks with powerful measures signed into law to prove to the world that the United States was committed to his climate agenda.
However, Biden entered the talks without a convincing deal in hand to present at the UN summit as key components of his domestic climate agenda were frustrated due to powerful fossil fuel interests, fierce opposition from Republicans, and infighting among Democrats.

Scientists have warned that the stakes could not be higher and that failure at the Glasgow summit would hamper the world in its existential fight to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

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These circles still harbor premonitions about a U.S. plot to use the deal in justifying the continuation of its military presence in Iraq under the pretext of training the country’s military personnel.

The deal was reached during a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to Washington, where he met U.S. President Joe Biden as part of a strategic dialogue between Iraq and the U.S.

“I’ve been in — I’ve been in contact with Kadhimi.  I have — anyway, I think things are going well.  Our role in Iraq will be as a — dealing with not — it’s just to be available, to continue to train, to assist, to help, and to deal with ISIS as it — as it arrives.  But we’re not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission,” Biden told reporters after he and al-Kadhimi met.

The Iraqi prime minister confirmed the deal in a statement issued following his meeting with the U.S. president. The statement said al-Kadhimi discussed with Biden “various aspects of strengthening relations between the two countries in all security, economic, cultural, educational and health fields.”

It added that the two sides affirmed the transition of the security relationship between Baghdad and Washington to the tasks of consulting, training, supporting Iraqi military capacity-building, providing technical support to the Iraqi armed forces, and the absence of combat forces by December 31 of this year.

The deal came after more than a year of continual campaign on the part of Iraqi political groups to demand a complete U.S. withdrawal of troops from Iraq. This campaign began early last year when the U.S. army assassinated two prominent Iranian and Iraqi generals near the Baghdad airport. The generals, IRGC’s Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani and Deputy Head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, were targeted by U.S. drones in the early days of 2020. A few days after the U.S. strike, the Iraqi parliament passed a bill obligating the Iraqi government to work in the direction of expelling all foreign troops from the country. In the ensuing months, the legislation sank into oblivion as angry protesters in southern Iraq brought down the government of Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

However, the political groups continued to insist on the withdrawal of U.S. troops even as al-Kadhimi took the helm in Baghdad. As the interim government of al-Kadhimi went forward with Iraq’s strategic dialogue with the U.S. the Iraqi negotiators faced growing calls for the U.S. withdrawal.
When al-Kadhimi and Biden announced the deal on withdrawal these calls seemed to have borne fruit. But a closer look at the announcement in that regard reveals that the deal may fall short of Iraqis’ expectations on the U.S. withdrawal. For example, the Iraqis have long demanded a complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq. But Biden explicitly said that the American troops will continue to be in Iraq in an advisory role.

This is by no means a concession to Iraq because the country is already stable and does not need any U.S. combat troops on the ground.

Furthermore, the deal does not meet the Iraqi demand of putting an end to U.S. arbitrary use of Iraq’s airspace. This was on full display during the drone strike that targeted al-Mohandes and General Soleimani. When asked about the U.S. use of Iraq’s airspace, former Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi complained that “U.S. drones and helicopters roam the skies over Baghdad without official permission.”

Perhaps the most accurate report about the U.S. superficial withdrawal came from The New York Times which said that the U.S.-Iraq deal will not lead to a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Instead, their mission will be changed from maintaining a presence on the frontlines to training Iraqi troops behind the frontlines. Citing Pentagon officials, the Times said the U.S. appears to be agreeing to the Iraqi prime minister’s request to set a date for the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, but the troop levels in Iraq will remain at their current level of about 2,500.

The Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee confirmed that the U.S. will maintain its troops in Iraq but with a redefined mission.

Mahdi Taqi Amerli, a member of the committee, told Iraqi news website Baghdad Today that “From the beginning, we know very well that the United States of America does not want a military withdrawal from Iraq, and it is working to delay this matter, with many pretexts and justifications that do not exist on the ground. That is why it wants the strategic dialogue with the Iraqi government to find a new pretext for the retention of its forces in the country.”

He pointed out that “the political forces, as well as the resistance factions, will not accept any American presence on the territory of Iraq, whatever the excuse of those forces, and we in the Iraqi parliament, we will closely monitor the results of the dialogue as well as the actual implementation of the American withdrawal in Iraq, otherwise we will take a firm stand against the procrastination of this file, whether by the Americans or the Iraqi government.”

He made the remarks after Western media outlets reported that the U.S. intends to announce the withdrawal of its troops on paper.

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Rezaei made the remark on Monday when visiting Iran’s southeastern borders and the Milak border terminal.

The deputy police chief added that the result of the illegitimate U.S presence in Afghanistan is nothing less than destruction and insecurity.

He said today the Afghan people need humanitarian assistance from world countries so the best help is to allow people to form a popular government based on their own wishes and not to meddle in the internal affairs of the country.

Developments in Afghanistan has unnerved the Afghan people and the countries neighboring Afghanistan. The Taliban, which is making rapid advances in Afghanistan, have so far captured some regions bordering Iran and Tajikistan. However, Iran has launched relentless efforts to reconcile the Afghan government and the Talban. Last week, Tehran hosted talks between top representatives from the Afghan government and the Taliban.

General Rezaei said arrogant governments led by the “criminal U.S” have taken peace away from the region’s peoples for more than 40 years and imposed such a deplorable situation on the people of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan was first invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979. 22 years later, in 2001, the country was occupied by the United States. The flames of war that started in the Central Asian countries more than 40 years ago is still raging.

According to IRNA, the Iranian police official referred to the recent developments in Afghanistan, saying absolute security is prevalent in Iran’s eastern borders.

The law enforcement forces of Iran are guarding borders with full vigilance and will not allow the least insecurity in the country’s border areas thanks to the appropriate infrastructures created in the southern border regions over the past years to protect Iranian borders, General Rezaei stated.

Due to the recent developments in Afghanistan, there are some limitations in the Mahiroud border terminal and Dogharoon-Islam Qala border, while there are no security issues in the Milk border terminal and cars and goods have the same old traffic based on border protocols, he stated.

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The bill, led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), would give the Senate veto power over any attempt by the Biden administration to reenter the nuclear deal — which was effectively dissolved when former President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact in 2018 — by deeming it a treaty, which mandates approval from the upper chamber.

The GOP proposal comes as top Biden officials are holding indirect talks with the Iranians in Vienna in a bid to revive the Obama-era deal, which Republicans uniformly opposed. GOP lawmakers have introduced several measures aimed at preventing Biden from lifting the biting sanctions that Trump imposed on Tehran as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” doctrine.

“Any potential agreement with Iran involves risks that affect our entire nation. It is critical to the security of America and to world peace that any deal Biden negotiates with Iran be deemed a treaty requiring approval by the U.S. Senate,” Johnson said.

Republicans have been pushing for Biden to use the Vienna talks to pressure Iran over its non-nuclear activities, too; but Democrats say that approach would be a death knell to efforts to revive the nuclear agreement.

Republicans’ new effort could further complicate the administration’s diplomatic efforts, since it’s aligned in spirit if not letter with a push that successfully afforded Congress veto power over the 2015 U.S.-Iran deal. The Johnson-led bill would subject any future agreement to a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate, an even higher hurdle than the 60-vote threshold the 2015 pact was subjected to.

The 2015 nuclear deal is endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

Most recently, the U.S. has been monitoring Iranian Navy ships that are making their way across the Atlantic Ocean, potentially for a weapons delivery to Venezuela. The Biden administration is pressuring the Venezuelan and Cuban governments to turn away the Iranian ships, and a senior administration official warned that the U.S. will take “appropriate measures in coordination with our partners to deter the transit or delivery of such weapons.”

A top Iranian military commander said on Thursday that the Iranian naval fleet, including two ships, has entered the Atlantic Ocean.

Habibollah Sayyari, deputy chief of the Army for coordination affairs, said Iran is entitled under international law to have a naval presence in international waters.

“We consider our presence in international waters an inalienable strategic right of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy and we will continue on this path with strength,” Rear Admiral Sayyari stated.

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One of the issues that the world expected the U.S. to return to the pre-Trump condition was the country’s return to the Open Skies Treaty with Russia. The pact allows unarmed observation aircraft to fly over countries’ territories to observe military forces.

But the U.S. has informed Russia of its refusal to rejoin a major arms control treaty to mutually conduct surveillance overflights ahead of a presidential summit between the two nuclear rivals.

Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov that the Biden administration had decided not to rejoin the Open Skies Treaty.

Former president Trump withdrew from the agreement that allowed surveillance flights over military facilities in both nations.

“The United States regrets that the treaty on Open Skies has been undermined by Russian violations,” a State Department spokesperson, cited by NBC News, said.

“In concluding its review of the treaty, the United States therefore does not intend to seek to rejoin it given Russia’s failure to take any actions to return to compliance.”

The unnamed spokesperson said recent Russian actions, including in Ukraine, did not indicate it was a partner “committed to confidence building,” referring to Russia’s recent military exercise within its own borders with Ukraine in response to a surge of war games by the U.S. and its NATO allies.

Russia has rejected Washington’s allegations that it failed to abide by the treaty and blasted Trump’s decision to exit the agreement.

The pact allows unarmed observation aircraft to fly over countries’ territories to observe military forces. The treaty was intended to promote transparency and defuse potential tension between Russia and the West.

Biden had censured Trump’s withdrawal from the fact as “short-sighted” when he was still a candidate.

Last May, he said, “In announcing the intent to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, President Trump has doubled down on his short-sighted policy of going it alone and abandoning American leadership.”

But now it seems he has swallowed his words and does not intend to return to the treaty because of his differences with Russia and it can be a new start for the Cold War between the two countries.

This decision means that only one major arms control treaty between the two powers — the New START treaty, which would have expired in February but the Biden administration moved quickly to extend it for another five years — will remain in place.

Washington’s decision not to re-enter the Open Skies Treaty — which was broadly backed by U.S. allies in Europe and by Democrats in Congress as a trust-building measure between the two nuclear powers — came only weeks prior to a planned summit between Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.

Leading congressional Democrats and members of the European Union had urged the Biden administration to reconsider its exit and also called on Moscow to remain in the pact and lift flight restrictions, notably over its westernmost Kaliningrad region, which lies between NATO allies Lithuania and Poland.

A number of U.S. arms control experts have also criticized the Biden administration’s decision to exit the pact, which they describe as a helpful tool to prevent an inadvertent conflict or crisis.

The Open Skies Treaty is not the only issue that Biden has retreated his promises as he has ignored his presidential election promises like issues of Iran’s nuclear deal and immigrants. His violation of promises now is considered a serious threat to the Democrat Party as the Congress and Senate elections loom.

U.S. Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders has warned Democrats that Republicans will win both the House of Representatives and the Senate next year if Democrats do not renounce obstructionism and fulfill the pledgees that Biden has given.

Regarding the U.S. return to the JCPOA, the Biden Administration is unwilling to remove all sanctions despite the claims had been made in the presidential election.

All one can see, since Biden has taken office, is that Biden is following Trump’s path in some foreign policies of the country and the world cannot expect major change in the behavior of the U.S. administration although Biden’s behavior and tone are softer and alluring unlike his predecessor who used to resort to harsher remarks.

So the world should rely on itself than waiting for any major change in the U.S. behavior because the nature of this arrogant country is unchangeable that it only dictates its policies on other countries and support of terrorists.

The Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979 has tried to show the true nature of the U.S. to the world that the U.S. is not trustworthy, and reliance on this country has no bright future and the world is gradually realizing what Iran has meant by standing against the U.S. excessive-demands.

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President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said that Iran has the upper hand in negotiations.

“Our negotiations now are different from the ones in 2013. Now, Iran has the upper hand in negotiations,” said Rouhani, adding, “We are not talking about the JCPOA right now. The talks about the JCPOA is over and now we are talking about how to allow the United States to return to the deal,” he said, adding, “We are now reviving the JCPOA.”

“We agreed with the P5+1 on important and fundamental issues,” Rouhani said.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also denied Iranian President Rouhani’s statement that there is already an agreement in principle, saying “that would be news to us…. It remains an unanswered question whether Iran is actually prepared to do what it needs to do to come back into compliance. The jury is still out on that.”

In a contradictory remarks, Iran’s chief negotiator at the Vienna talks says a number of hot-button issues remain to be resolved during discussions by the negotiating teams.

“The issues which have remained to be finalized and decided on are important issues,” said Abbas Araqchi.

“Of course, the number of these issues has decreased,” he underlined.

He said good headway has been made with drawing up the text of an agreement.

“However, the remaining issues are key ones which should be decided on,” Araqchi explained.

“Many of the delegations hope this will be the last round of talks and we will be able to reach a conclusion,” he added.

“We can be hopeful that this will happen, but we should be a little cautious, too,” Araqchi added.

He said Iran is seeking an agreement that would address its demands.

Meanwhile U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her country will be careful in how it decides to lift sanctions from Iran if current talks in Austria on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, better known as JCPOA, bear fruit.

Yellen made the remarks on Thursday while answering questions about Iran and its support for Palestinian groups in the Committee on Oversight and Reform in the United States House of Representatives, according to a report by the IRNA news agency and other international outlets.

The remarks showed that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden would have second thoughts about lifting sanctions imposed on Iran by his predecessor Donald Trump more than three years ago when he decided to abandon the JCPOA.

Talks involving Iran and six other parties to the JCPOA have continued in Vienna in an effort to bring Tehran and Washington back to compliance with the deal.

However, Yellen said the U.S. will decide what sanctions it will deem appropriate to lift if Iran resumes compliance with the nuclear deal.

“So we will carefully review what sanctions relief would be appropriate if Iran takes the appropriate steps,” she said.

Yellen had made the remarks while clarifying U.S. position on Iran’s support for Palestinians resisting Israeli occupation nearly a week after a war between Israel and the Gaza-based resistance group Hamas ended in a ceasefire.

It seems the war of attrition and exchange of refusing claims will continue and Iran should take its firm stand against this behavior of the West and especially the U.S.

Iranian negotiating team should not retreat any inch from the red lines set by the Supreme Leader and it should not fall in trap of void pledges of the West like the 2015 talks and signing the deal which was one-sidedly violated by the U.S.

Although it seemed the West is trying to prolong the talks in favor of a moderate and reformist government to come into power in the June presidential election, the recent developments in Iran and announcement of the final hopefuls for the election may accelerate the talks because there is no chance for a reformist government to take power and the Westerns have to come to terms with a principality and revolutionary government which will not bow down to the West’s pressure.

The negotiating team should wrap up very fast the talks to take the country out of this current indecisiveness, as the economy and trade is in a stand-by condition tied to the JCPOA talks’ outcome. The sooner, the better will be for the future of the country.

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In his first address to Congress on Wednesday, Biden said that he “made very clear to President [Vladimir] Putin that while we don’t seek escalation, their actions have consequence.”

Biden was referring to a phone call he had with Putin earlier this month.

The US president reiterated allegations that Russia interfered in US 2020 presidential elections, saying, “I responded in a direct and proportionate way to Russia’s interference in our elections.”

He also accused Russia of being behind “cyber-attacks on our government and businesses – and they did both of those things and I did respond.

Earlier this month, the White House imposed sanctions on Russia over alleged cyberattacks, human rights violations, and the Ukrainian conflict.

It said the sanctions were not designed to escalate bilateral tensions but to impose costs on Moscow for what Washington feels “are unacceptable actions by the Russian government.”

Russia, which has denied that it interfered in the elections, threatened Washington with an intensive response to sanctions.

Moscow described the US sanctions as unacceptable and said the measures would not “help” the prospect of a summit proposed by the US president to be held between him and Putin.

Biden further said that his administration “can also cooperate when it’s in our mutual interests” with Russia.

He has proposed a summit in a third country with president Putin to bring stability to relation, during a phone call he had with Putin.

Moscow said that the Russian president agreed with Biden on the importance of dialog, but that a possible summit between the two leaders largely depends on Washington’s behavior.

The US president has, however, taken a hard stance toward Moscow than his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

An American journalist has told Press TV that Biden is apparently determined to wipe out any chance of improving diplomatic relations with Russia.

‘US keep military presence in Indo-Pacific in defiance of China’

Regarding China, Biden said he told President Xi Jinping that Washington will stand up to the competition in the region.

Biden claimed that his administration does not seek conflict with China, but vowed to maintain a military presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

“I also told President Xi that we will maintain a strong military presence in the Indo-Pacific just as we do with NATO in Europe – not to start conflict – but to prevent conflict,” he told Congress on the eve of his 100th day in office.

The US president also acknowledged Washington is in a state of competition with China and several other countries for leadership in the 21st century.

“America is moving forward, but we can’t stop now,” he said. “We’re in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century. We’re at a great inflection point in history.”

Biden also called on Congress to make a $180 billion investment in advancing “US leadership in critical technologies and upgrade America’s research infrastructure.”

The Democratic president’s policies toward Beijing continue the Trump-era stance on export controls to Chinese technology companies.

Biden has kept some Trump-era export bans on Chinese companies.

Under the former president, telecommunication equipment maker Huawei and China’s largest chipmaker SMIC were put on the so-called “entity list,” which restricts American firms from exporting technology to companies on this blacklist.

China and the US have been engaged in an intense trade war, kicked off under the Trump administration.

The two world powers are also increasingly at odds over a range of issues, including alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, protests in Hong Kong, China’s territorial claims on the Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and most of the South China Sea as well as the COVID-19 origin.

Beijing hoped for an improvement in relations under President Joe Biden’s administration. But the new president has so far shown no sign of backing down on hardline policies toward Beijing.

The US president has even urged his democratic allies to harden their stance on China.

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Washington’s ambassador to Ankara was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry following the US President Joe Biden’s recognition of the “Armenian genocide.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador to Turkey David Satterfield to protest US decision in this regard.

While condemning the US statement, Turkish Foreign Ministry said, “It is clear that this letter has no legal or scientific basis and also has no documentary support. Regarding the events in 1915, there is no requirement to use the term ‘genocide’, as stipulated in international law.”

The statement added that the European Court of Human Rights had also confirmed the “controversial” nature of events occurred in 1915, in which Turkey proposed to Armenia in 2005 for setting up a joint historical commission to investigate the historical facts in this respect.

“Although Armenia never responded to the offer, it is still on the table. In this regard, the statements made by the US President, who has neither the legal nor the moral authority to judge historical events, are worthless,” Turkish Foreign Ministry continued.

According to this report, Ankara said that the move adopted by the US government opened a long-standing wound in bilateral trust and friendship, adding, “We urge the President of the United States Joe Biden to redress this gross mistake, the mistake which is in the interest of no one but to serve the interests of some certain political circles.”

The US President Biden has formally recognized the killings and deportations of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during the last years of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century as “genocide”.

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Omar and few other lawmakers on Friday urged Biden in a letter to raise the Trump-era cap of 15,000 to 62,500, which the Biden administration had proposed to Congress earlier this year.

“As a refugee, I know finding a home is a matter of life or death for children around the world. It is shameful that @POTUS is reneging on a key promise to welcome refugees, moments after @RepSchakowsky @RepJayapal, myself and others called on him to increase the refugee cap,” the Muslim congresswoman tweeted, referencing Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) who joined her in writing Friday’s letter.

Omar had arrived in the United States as a refugee from Somalia as a child.

The White House announced that it would be keeping the refugee cap at 15,000 for the fiscal year, despite the fact that Biden has advocated to raise the number of refugees America accepts to 125,000.

However, White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed in a press conference on Thursday that he “remains committed to raising the refugee cap.”

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) also denounced Biden’s reversal and called it “utterly unacceptable.”

“Biden promised to welcome immigrants, and people voted for him based on that promise. Upholding the xenophobic and racist policies of the Trump admin, incl the historically low + plummeted refugee cap, is flat out wrong,” she tweeted on Friday. “Keep your promise.”

Meanwhile, Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said in a statement that “President Biden has broken his promise to restore our humanity.”

“We cannot turn our back on refugees around the world, including hundreds of refugees who have already been cleared for resettlement, have sold their belongings, and are ready to board flights,” she added.

President Biden vowed to unwind many of the immigration policies of Trump when he assumed office on Jan. 20, saying he would erase what he has called “a moral and national shame” inherited from Trump. But he has reneged on many of his promises after assuming the office.

Biden is also under fire now over the growing humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border, where an influx of refugee fleeing violence and economic hardship in Central and South America.

The White House is, in particular, wrestling with reports about conditions in overcrowded detention centers for unaccompanied immigrant children.

More than 10-thousand kids, including many of those forcibly separated from their parents, are now in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services as US officials are struggling to process them.

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Political analysts believe that the U.S. would benefit the protracted talks and it can make Iran accept more of its conditions at the negotiating table. One of the political analysts warned Iranian negotiating team of avoiding protraction of talks because it will be against Iran’s interests. He listed four reasons that the Americans are trying to protract talks in order to dictate their conditions in the JCPOA regarding other issues like regional and missile programs.

One of the reasons for protraction of talks is that the Americans think that to return to the JCPOA, they have to give concessions and have to fulfill some of their JCPOA obligations which had not been even fulfilled during the Barack Obama Administration and Trump Administration also left them. Currently no determination is seen in the Biden Administration to fulfill some of the obligations accepted during the 2015 agreement and talks of attribution will help them to delay fulfilling their obligations and they can get more concessions from Iran by protracting the talks.

The other reason that the Americans like the talks are protracted is to get some concessions on defense, missile and regional issues and its solution is in protracting the talks. The Supreme Leader in his remarks reiterated that they want to dictate some of their conditions on Iran.

The analyst noted the Iranian negotiating team under pressure from some officials in the country rush to conclude the talks as soon as possible and the protracted talks would make them tired and they may give concessions as the U.S. wants. So protracted talks are against Iran’s interests.

The analysts also believe that U.S. President Joe Biden does not have enough power to lift all sanctions due to opposition in the Democrat-dominated Congress because some of the Democrat Congressmen also Senators are against lifting the imposes sanctions and Biden is not ready to mess with them and he will benefit the protraction of talks.

Of course, some part of Zionist lobbying is active in the Congress, and by the way, Saudis and the Emiratis are also active to influence the Congressmen on not backing the removal of sanctions and therefore prolongation of the talks will be good for them, either.

The other reason that Americans like the talks to be protracted is the upcoming Iran presidential election as some part of the Democrats in the Biden Administration like to influence Iran presidential election and it is not a complicate issue. It is nature because we also had our choice in the U.S. presidential elections and we wanted someone to take power who exerts less pressure on our country. So the Democrats want someone to take power in Iran to give more concessions to them. In order to influence the election, they need propagation and for this reason and to this end, they may partially unfreeze some of Iran’s assets, and even for it, they need the talks to go on. There is even no consensus in the Biden Administration on unblocking Iran’s assets in the Biden Administration.

To counter this theory of the Americans, Iran should not give them enough time to protract the talks and it should continue its nuclear activities with pace because although some inside the country do not understand the significance of nuclear activities, the opposite side knows it well and the Majlis approval on the nuclear policy should be carried out and it should not be delayed under different pretexts and it should give the Americans to plan other plots and the talks should end as soon as it is realized it is just waste of time and energy.

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