Iran deal tosses a tremendous cash lifeline to terrorist regime

The Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran hands the terrorist regime the one victory it could never have achieved on the battlefield.Financial reprieve.What is so disconcerting is that the Iranian regime has never been as weak in its 47 years of existence as it is now.American and Israeli strikes severely degraded Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and gutted Iran’s military.A naval blockade choked its ports, with the Strait of Hormuz slammed shut to Iranian oil sales while the US Navy and Saudi and Emirati pipelines quietly moved millions of barrels per day, keeping oil prices from reaching crisis levels.The national currency, the rial, went into free fall with inflation in triple digits and massive damage to the country’s economic infrastructure that fed its military.Tehran came to the negotiating table not from strength but out of its desperation to survive.The resulting MOU seemingly guarantees its survival and grants it the resources to rebuild.The agreement includes a 60-day waiver that would allow Iran to immediately resume oil exports, followed by broader relief if a long-term agreement over its nuclear program is reached.Vice President JD Vance promised “significant sanctions relief” and a path to escort Iran back “into the world economy.”He insisted that “not a single dollar of American money will go to Iran.”He’s right.But it’s also beside the point.The danger was never that American money would flow to Tehran.The risk is that money that rightly belongs to the Iranian people — tens of billions in oil revenue currently trapped abroad and billions more about to be released in new sales — will be transferred to the jihadist fanatics who are holding the nation and the region hostage.That distinction is everything.Before the MOU, Iran sold roughly 90% of its oil to Chinese “teapot” refineries — small, cash-strapped buyers operating on steep discounts.The oil moves.

But the money largely does ...