The Iranian regime is desperate. Biden must not give in

It should come as no surprise that Ismail Haniyeh , the political leader of Hamas , attended the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran on May 22. His brazen eulogy for Raisi, public meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and praise for the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel were reminders of the ironclad links between Hamas and an Iranian regime desperate to breed perpetual chaos in the Middle East.

To dismantle these ties between Hamas and the Iranian regime, the Biden administration must end its misguided attempts at accommodation with Iran and recommit to the security of our allies and partners in the region. President Joe Biden should also make clear that the United States supports a free and fair Iranian presidential election.

Khamenei seeks to advance a religious and revolutionary strategy that falsely equates the fundamentals of Islam with the destruction of Israel and the United States. In addition to funding and training Hamas radicals, he has directed proxy groups in Yemen to disrupt shipping in the Red Sea, allowed Shia terrorists to attack and kill American troops, and launched an unprecedented direct strike on Israeli territory. He has even exported drones and missiles to support Russian aggression in Ukraine. And once Khamenei acquires nuclear weapons, which could be only a matter of months away, the world risks being held hostage by a fundamentalist state whose supreme leader will not hesitate to funnel dirty bombs to the highest bidder.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration is so paralyzed by America’s failures in Iraq and its own disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that its idea of an Iran policy is to loosen oil sanctions, resurrect the Obama-era Iran Nuclear Deal, and strike deals to unfreeze Iranian assets, all of which have flushed Iran with enough cash to hold the region hostage. Hamas’s terrorist attack and Iran’s strikes against Israel should serve as a wake-up call for the Biden administration. Its policy of trying to contain the Islamic republic is only fueling the fires of fundamentalism and undermining the reliability of U.S. diplomacy.

Haniyeh’s speech at Raisi’s funeral also exposed the ideological divide separating the Iranian people from Iran’s rulers. Recent parliamentary elections in March had the lowest turnout since the revolution of 1979, with voter turnout in the capital, Tehran, at a humiliating 26.17%.

That three former Iranian presidents were absent at Raisi’s funeral also underscores a simple view of public opinion: as long as Khamenei is in power, there may be no resolution to the conflict in Gaza and no long-term security in the region. It should not come as a surprise that millions of Iranians are rallying around the cry, “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life is for Iran.”

With the presidential election looming in the coming days, Iran’s supreme leader is about to reap what he has sown: a kleptocracy mired in a crisis of faith, identity, and legitimacy.

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This moment calls for bold American leadership. Instead of sending condolence letters for Raisi, a U.S.-designated terrorist and notorious butcher responsible for murdering thousands of Iranian political prisoners, Biden should fully enforce sanctions on Khamenei, respond with force when our interests and servicemembers are threatened, and commit to the long-term normalization between Israel and the Arab world. He should also join the Iranian people in calling for free and fair elections, the release of all political prisoners, a moratorium on executions, and an end to clerical despotism in Iran.

America's diplomatic and military commitments in the region should line up with the national interests of the Iranian people suffering under this regime. No matter how many of Iran’s children Raisi killed or Khamenei blinded, Iranians have held on to the promise of a better future. These profiles in courage should inspire Biden to steer a different course in his Middle East policy.

Blake Moore is a U.S. representative for Utah. Khosrow B. Semnani is an Iranian-American industrialist, community leader, and philanthropist in Salt Lake City.