The Biden administration’s former special envoy to Iran, who was placed on leave earlier this year for allegedly mishandling classified material, should face “extensive scrutiny” for his “permissive” stance toward the Tehran regime after it helped Hamas and Hezbollah carry out terrorist attacks. against Israel, critics said Monday.
“Rob Malley deserves close scrutiny: yesterday, today and tomorrow,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told the Post after the Wall Street Journal reported that officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps planned and approved the This weekend’s atrocity that killed at least 900.
“These reports could not be more worrying and hint at what could be the worst State Department scandal since Alger Hiss,” Issa added.
“Malley and others created an incredibly permissive environment for Hamas, for Iran, to do all of these things,” added Gabriel Noronha, former special adviser on Iran at the State Department.
Suspended Iran special envoy Rob Malley, who was placed on leave earlier this year for allegedly mishandling classified material, is under renewed scrutiny from defense hawks. AFP via Getty Images
Noronha, who worked under former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said Malley and his negotiating team “intentionally funneled billions of dollars to [Iran] due to the lack of sanctions enforcement and provision of sanctions relief that has given them between 50 and 80 billion dollars in the last two and a half years.”
A senior House Republican aide told The Post that the influx of cash followed an even more generous $1.7 billion payment the Obama administration made to Iran in 2016, ultimately contributing to the Saturday attack that triggered the first declaration of war by the Jewish State in 50 years.
“There is a straight line between Obama’s gift to Iran, Biden’s enrichment of Iran and Iran’s war against Israel,” the aide said.
“Malley and others created an incredibly permissive environment for Hamas, for Iran to do all of these things,” Gabriel Noronha, former special adviser on Iran at the State Department, told The Post.REUTERS
Noronha also noted that the Biden administration had allowed “an enormous failure in deterrence” by undertaking only four operations against Iranian-backed terrorist groups after allowing the regime and its proxies to carry out 83 attacks of their own against US forces.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had revealed the weak US response to the Iranian-backed attacks in Senate testimony earlier this year.
On Saturday, Hamas terrorists launched the largest-scale offensive against Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, firing thousands of rockets into the Jewish state and engaging in a multi-front armed invasion to kill and capture civilians.
Noronha said Malley and his team “intentionally funneled billions of dollars to [Iran] due to the lack of sanctions enforcement and provision of sanctions relief that has given them between 50 and 80 billion dollars in the last two and a half years.”
At least 900 Israelis have been killed, thousands have been injured and approximately 150 have been taken hostage.
The death toll includes 11 Americans, and President Biden admitted Monday afternoon that there were “probably” American citizens among those kidnapped and held in Gaza.
Noronha noted that under the Trump administration, the United States did not distinguish “between the Iranian regime that kills Americans and the regime’s proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah, that kill Americans.”
Malley was quietly placed on unpaid leave in June for his handling of “protected material,” but the State Department has refrained from sharing the nature of the allegations with Congress. AFP via Getty Images
“Either way, we would treat that as attacks by the Iranian government itself and respond accordingly,” he said. “And now, [11] The Americans, at least, are dead. Perhaps more than a dozen are being held hostage.
“There is a temptation on the part of this administration, and they have been very clear, they have been trying to pretend that this is not their problem,” Noronha concluded. “And the reason they do it is because they don’t want their Iran policy to be ruined.”
Malley was quietly placed on unpaid leave in June for his handling of “protected material,” but the State Department has refrained from sharing the nature of the allegations with Congress.
A man stands on a road as fire burns after rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, October 7, 2023. REUTERS
In August, an Iranian media outlet leaked a memo from Erin Smart, director of the Department’s Office of Diplomatic Security, Personnel Safety and Suitability Office, outlining “serious security concerns” with his actions.
The FBI has an “ongoing” investigation into the matter, according to the State Department.
Last month, another trove of leaked files revealed that three top Malley aides were linked to a secret influence operation by Tehran’s Foreign Ministry, according to internal Iranian government correspondence and emails reviewed by Semafor.
Noronha called the allegations against Malley “deeply troubling” but said details about his alleged violations of U.S. security protocols were scarce.
Defense hawks have also criticized Malley, who served as an adviser on Iran policy during former President Barack Obama’s administration, for comments recently emerging in support of Hamas and Hezbollah.REUTERS
Defense hawks have also criticized Malley, who was an adviser on Iran policy during former President Barack Obama’s administration, for comments recently emerging in support of Hamas and Hezbollah.
“It’s a mistake to think of them only in terms of their dimension of terrorist violence,” Malley said in a 2008 interview. “They have a charity, a social arm; It is also not something that can be defeated militarily and people must understand that.”
“There is so much misinformation about them,” Malley continued. “None of them are crazy. “They can do things that we think of as belonging to a different realm of rationality, but within their own system they tend to be very logical.”
Noronha called the allegations against Malley “deeply troubling” but said details about his alleged violations of U.S. security protocols were scarce. AFP via Getty Images
“If Hamas is not allowed to rule, if we squeeze them out, and you know you may have good reasons for doing so, but if you do, we will tell you what the reaction will be: rockets. Without a doubt,” he added. “And the consolidation of Hamas’ power in Gaza. “Both things have happened.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo harshly criticized Malley for the comments, which resurfaced in May 2021 on Xformerly Twitter.
“Hamas supporter Iran said it ‘supports the Palestinian struggle,’” Pompeo published at that time. “Hamas is a terrorist organization, not a ‘charity’. “American negotiators must see them both as enemies, not as members of high society.”
Omri Ceren, national security adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), also published Sunday that “Malley was so entangled with Hamas that Obama had to leave him as an advisor [sic] during the 2008 campaign, before bringing him back to deal with Middle East policy.”
“Under Biden he oversaw the policy that allowed Iran to get within range of nuclear weapons and earn hundreds of billions of dollars,” Ceren said, linking to a Times of Israel article about Malley’s exclusion from the first presidential campaign. Obama.
On Monday, after the White House insisted it had seen no evidence that Iran was behind the weekend carnage in Israel, Ceren tweeted: “Team Biden is once again behaving like Iran’s lawyer.”
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