A group of 18 Republican senators have called for a probe into murky circumstances surrounding the State Department’s handling of its Iran envoy’s security clearance investigation.
Spearheaded by Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), the group sent a letter to the State Department’s internal watchdog calling for investigation into the suspension of senior diplomat Robert Malley’s security clearance.
“We write to request that the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) conduct an independent investigation into whether State Department officials complied with all appropriate laws and regulations—including policies and procedures described in the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual,” read the letter.
Congress was kept in the dark about the developments and was only informed about it when his replacement was announced. Malley’s suspension was first reported by Iran International June 29, and formally announced the following day by Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the US State Department, calling it "a leave of absence”, adding that his duties would be temporarily assumed by his deputy, Abram Paley. However, it is believed he had been suspended as early as April.
Michael McCaul (R-TX), the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on foreign affairs, wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 30 seeking "a full and transparent accounting" about why Malley was suspended and was under investigation. The Senior Republican lawmaker slammed the responseas "absolutely unacceptable"
"The Department is not in a position to provide further documents or information related to this personnel-security clearance matter," according to a copy of the correspondence.McCaul said, "Congress deserves to know exactly why the US Special Envoy (for) Iran had his security clearance suspended, was then suspended from his position, and now, according to news reports, is being investigated by the FBI," adding that he would ask the agency for a classified briefing next week.
In their letter to Diana Shaw, the acting inspector general of the Department of State, the senators outlined specific questions that must be answered “no later than Friday, July 21, 2023.”
The senators' questions mainly focused on details such as the exact date Malley’s unpaid leave started and when his security clearance was suspended or when or whether he has turned in all “Department-issued credentials that provide logical or physical access to classified systems or designated classified spaces/facilities."
Several of their questions also pertained to the works of the State Department’s Iran Action Group, given that the Special Envoy is tasked with leading the taskforce. “After the State Department suspended Special Envoy Malley’s clearance, when and how were members of the Iran Action Group expressly directed not to discuss or otherwise share any classified information with Malley?” they asked.
Capitol Hill Republicans are growing increasingly frustrated with the Biden administration’s unwillingness to share information about the issue. Adding salt to the injury, an article by Tehran Times, a publication controlled by the Iranian regime, provided astonishing details about Malley's situation. This has led to concerns that the Iranian government knows more about the issue than US lawmakers.
“You would think the administration would proactively inform Congress that the person in charge of this doesn’t have the clearances to do their job, and that never happened,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), one of the signatories of the letter and the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “It’s not good.”
Speaking to Iran International’s Arash Alaei this week, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) criticized the government for not being forthcoming. He said, "You have a totalitarian regime publishing all this information and knowing it, yet your own government won't be honest with us about it."
He further stated, "It's ridiculous...I feel like I've been lied to... They (the administration) lie to us all the time on various issues, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, China... It's a pattern in this administration."
Republicans and some Democrats have been opposed to President Joe Biden's policy of negotiating with the Islamic Republic to revive the 2015 JCPOA agreement that former President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018. The talks came to a deadlock in September 2022, after 18 months of multilateral diplomacy.
Now with only about one year left from Biden’s first term, even Iran’s allies are not optimistic of resuscitating the comatose accord, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying Thursday, "I doubt it would be very realistic to expect this (revival of the JCPOA), with a new administration coming to power in the United States in a year’s time.”
"Who knows whether that administration will be Democratic or Republican. And nobody can guarantee that this new administration would refrain from using the trick of withdrawing from the agreement again," he added.
As Russia joined the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members in support of the United Arab Emirates initiatives to look for “a peaceful settlement” over the ownership of Abu Musa, and the Greater and Lesser Tunb islands Tehran feels deeply annoyed, but it is too weak to show a serious response.
Britain, which maintained control of the three islands it had occupied in the 19th century, withdrew its forces from the Persian Gulf in 1971 and the United Arab Emirates was formed. However, Iran’s Imperial government at the time decided to reclaim what it believed were historical Iranian islands.
Mohammad Reza Shah sent the Iranian navy to secure all three in November of the same year. Iranian forces remain on the islands, with only Abu Musa having much of a civilian population of several thousand.
However, the UAE has maintained over the years that the islands belonged to littoral sheikdoms that joined to form the United Arab Emirates.
A former senior diplomat in Tehran, Qasem Mohebali says countries such as Russia and China believe that no matter what they say or do Tehran will continue to support them over Ukraine, Tibet and Taiwan.
In fact, Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted Wednesday as an apparent response to Russia, reiterating Iran’s sovereignty on the islands, but shied away from mentioning Russia by name.
Mohebali, who was once the director general of Middle East Affairs at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, also said in an interview with moderate news website Entekhab that "Iran's friends apparently pay more attention to the wishes of its rivals."
He added that the odd stance by Russia is an outcome of Tehran's imbalanced foreign policy. This was a reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's ‘Looking East’ foreign policy which totally ignores the West and pins all hopes on Russia and China.
Many critics however have pointed out in recent years that Russia is not a trustworthy partner for Iran, neither on the nuclear issue nor in any other foreign policy or trade issue.
Russia joined the GCC on July 11 to support the UAE's demand to refer the case of the three islands to the International Court of Justice based on international laws and the UN charter.
Mohebali also drew attention to a similar move by China in December 2022, during President XI Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia. He argued that unlike the United States, Russia and China are not keen to call the waterway The Persian Gulf as Iran does, and they refer to it as "The Gulf" to appease the waterway's littoral Arab countries.
The former diplomat said European states also have supported the Arab states as they pay more attention to the other side's demands rather than to Iran's.
He said because of Iran's imbalanced foreign policy, China and Russia have far more extensive trade relations with the Persian Gulf Arab states than Iran does, and it is natural for them to look after their interests.
Asked how Tehran will respond to Russia's stance on the issue, Mohebali said: "Iran should tell Russia that it might change its position on the Ukraine war and Crimea."
IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency reported quoted Foreign Ministry Spokesman Naser Kanani as rejecting the issues raised in a joint statement of the GCC and Russia about the three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf. “These islands belong to Iran eternally and issuing such statements run counter to the friendly relations between Iran and the neighbors,” the spokesman noted.
Tasnim added, "The islands of the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa have historically been part of Iran, proof of which can be found and corroborated by countless historical, legal, and geographical documents in Iran and other parts of the world."
Raisi received a red-carpet welcome from his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto on Wednesday as he arrived in the country on the first leg of his tour, a first by an Iranian president in more than a decade, presented as an effort to diversify economic ties in the face of crippling US sanctions. The last Iranian leader to visit Africa was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2013.
Kenya's foreign ministry described Raisi’s trip as an opportunity “to review and re-energize bilateral relations for the mutual benefit of the people of the two countries."
According to Kenya’s President Ruto, “Iran agreed to boost Kenya’s pursuits in manufacturing, health and the blue economy through research and technology.” He added that his administration was “working closely with Tehran to facilitate the export of more tea, meat and other agricultural products to Iran, which will also act as a key entry point to Central Asian countries.”
As is customary in Raisi’s visits, Iranian and Kenyan ministers signed five memorandums of understanding covering information technology, fisheries, livestock products and investment promotion, with the Iranian president expressing hope that the bilateral ties would increase tenfold, without specifying a timeframe.
Claiming that raising the volume of trade exchanges 10-fold is within the realm of possibility, Raisi stated, "None of us are satisfied with the current volume of trade and the current economic exchange between countries."
Iran's foreign ministry has said that it expects trade with African countries to increase to more than $2 billion this year, up from an estimated figure of about $500 million.
Even if the higher figure was feasible, it would still be insignificant compared to the UAE's $50 billion and Turkey's $35 billion trade with Africa, which has $600 billion global trade. Iran's target represents less than one percent of that.
Alan Tofighi, a Paris-based activist, told Iran International TV that such claims by Tehran are unrealistic due to its lack of financial resources and international access to invest in African countries.
He believes this is why former president Hassan Rouhani never wasted his time with trips to African countries, as such visits only serve the regime’s propaganda. According to the pundit, Iran’s ulterior motives to have a presence in the continent can be “terrorist activities and procuring materials for its nuclear program, such as uranium, as well as promoting the Shiite ideology.”
The Iranian president arrived at his second destination Uganda later on Wednesday and is scheduled to visit Zimbabwe next.
In Uganda, Raisi signed four agreements with President Yoweri Museveni at his presidential palace in the capital Kampala, also saying that Iran stood ready to share its experience regarding a planned 60,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery.
“The West and the global arrogance prefer that countries export oil and raw materials and turn such materials into value-added products. Therefore, all our efforts in Iran are focused on preventing sale of raw materials,” Raisi said.
“Global arrogance” is a term coined by the Islamic Republic to refer to the United States, which it claims wants to subjugate Iran. Anti-Americanism is the ideological cornerstone of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's regime during more than three decades of his authoritarian rule.
“Western colonialism is after exerting pressure on free and independent countries through human rights issues and, today, it is exploiting human rights as a political tool and is putting pressure on independent countries through double standards,” Raisi said in a press conference with Museveni.
Morteza Kazemian, another political analyst, told Iran International that Raisi’s visit will bear no results as all the three African destinations of his tour are grappling with numerous economic and social crises. Neither Iran nor these African countries have anything to offer to each other, he added.
Jaber Rajabi, a political analyst and activist, also told us that given the growing isolation of the regime Raisi’s track record of human rights violations related to the mass executions in the 1980s, he does not have many places to visit. “Such trips are only for show,” he noted.
Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House of Representatives committee on foreign affairs, wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 30 seeking "a full and transparent accounting" about why Malley was suspended and was under investigation.
Malley’s suspension was first reported by Iran International June 29, and formally announced the following day by Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the US State Department, calling it "a leave of absence”, adding that his duties would be temporarily assumed by his deputy, Abram Paley. However, it is believed he had been suspended as early as April.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official said Malley was put on unpaid leave on June 29 after news broke that his security clearance was under review.
In a response made public by McCaul's office, Naz Durakoglu the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, said the agency had a "thorough and comprehensive process" to assess an individual's eligibility to access classified information.
"Consistent with longstanding Executive Branch and Department of State policies and practices, the Department is not in a position to provide further documents or information related to this personnel-security clearance matter," she said.
McCaul, in a brief statement, said: "This is an absolutely unacceptable response."
"Congress deserves to know exactly why the US Special Envoy (for) Iran had his security clearance suspended, was then suspended from his position, and now, according to news reports, is being investigated by the FBI," McCaul added, saying he would ask the agency for a classified briefing next week.
Former State Department Advisor on Iran Gabriel Noronha tweeted that the administration failed to clarify the nature of Malley’s security infractions and “they contemptuously refer Congress to the Foreign Affairs Manual.”
When news that his security clearance was under review broke on June 29, Malley said: "I have been informed that my security clearance is under review. I have not been provided any further information, but I expect the investigation to be resolved favorably and soon. In the meantime, I am on leave."
In a regular briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Matt Miller said Malley "stopped performing the duties" of special envoy for Iran on June 29 and "went on leave "several weeks before that," but he declined to provide further details.
In fact, Malley was absent from a Congressional briefing in May, when the State Department said he could not attend because of a family health emergency.
Three other Republican senators spoke with Iran International on Tuesday, criticizing the Biden administration for its Iran policy and Malley’s security investigation.
Appointed soon after Democratic President Joe Biden took office in 2021, Malley had the task of trying to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, had abandoned the pact in 2018 and reimposed U.S. sanctions on Iran.
But Iranians opposed to the Islamic Republic never trusted Malley, who they believed was inclined not to be tough with the regime and played down popular sentiments to replace the clerical regime with a secular and democratic government. Some US lawmakers have also hinted that they share the distrust.
Having failed to revive the deal, the United States has held talks with Iran to try to ease tensions by sketching out steps that could limit the Iranian nuclear program, release some detained U.S. citizens and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad, Iranian and Western officials said in June.
With reporting by Reuters
