Democrat sanctions 'expert' worries that Iran's economy will thrive

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]This is Richard Nephew. Max, you've written about him. He wrote that book called The Art of Sanctions, which you dubbed The Art of Sadism because Richard Nephew, an architect of the sanctions on Iran during the Obama era, he bragged about raising the price of food for ordinary Iranians during a holiday season and just what a success he thought that was.

[00:00:20]Here he is then he served under Biden again and he helps explain why under Biden there was no return to the JCPOA even though members of the Biden administration negotiated the JCPOA under Obama, but you have a wing people like Richard Nephew, Amos Hochstein, they were the dominant ones under Biden and so therefore there was no return to the deal. So anyway, here Richard Nephew writing recently in Foreign Affairs, he admits that basically US sanctions which he helped design on Iran are the cause of all of Iran's problems. This is what he says.

[00:00:52]Um and he says comprehensive sanctions relief for Iran would help flood the country with enough money to overcome its legacy of mismanagement, corruption, and failed governance. In doing so, it might relieve popular pressure on the regime. So he's admitting that all the problems that we, you know, blame on Iran, its corruption, mismanagement, and so forth, that if the US sanctions were lifted, all those problems would go away. So he's acknowledging that US sanctions are the main cause of Iran's problems. But that's why he opposes lifting those sanctions cuz it would relieve popular pressure on the regime. So the answer then is to keep putting pressure on the people by denying them the right to have an economy because if we relieve that pressure, then they won't pursue regime change according to our dictates. So that's Richard Nephew and that's another reason why it's so difficult to have a change of policies because Trump's policies have a strong bipartisan base of support.

[00:01:51]Yeah, that's why I call it the US regime.

[00:01:53]The Democrats under Biden, the Democratic foreign policy establishment opposed a deal with Iran.

[00:02:00]And opposes because they oppose sanctions relief.

[00:02:04]Any deal would require sanctions relief.

[00:02:06]Iran never got sanctions relief in any meaningful way from the JCPOA.

[00:02:11]And it's because of the mentality of people like Richard Nephew who can never accept an independent sovereign state in the middle of Eurasia.

[00:02:21]They're only They're They These are figures who are trained to dictate to other countries, to terrorize their people in order to impose US total hegemony on the globe, moving all the way towards a pivot with Asia that will eventually break China. And they're living in a fantasy world at this point.

[00:02:43]So I think Iran finally recognizes, they had to learn the hard way, that the US only understands force. The This US regime, not the American people, has The US regime has very little popular support.

[00:02:56]>> [snorts] >> Hey, by the way, the one guy under Biden who like favored diplomacy with Iran and restoring the JCPOA was Rob Malley. And what happened to him? What happened to him under He was prosecuted. Biden approved of his prosecution. He got >> [laughter] >> He got basically framed by someone else in the Biden administration. And I have some guesses as to who for, you know, leaking classified information to Iran, which is total BS. And so he was taken off of his job and he got basically put on leave pending investigation. So the one guy who like tried to do his job of diplomacy with Iran, his own colleagues in the in the Biden administration sabotaged him with a fake classified documents case.

[00:03:35]Who do you think set him up?

[00:03:37]I have some guesses, but you know, it wouldn't be you know, like basically it's people like Richard Nephew and Amos Hochstein.

[00:03:44]>> [laughter] >> Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan. Tony Blinken, Tony who went to high school with Rob Malley and they used to debate back in the day because Really? Oh yeah.

[00:03:54]Yeah, they went to high school in Paris together.

[00:03:58]>> [snorts] >> And Blinken Blinken was a lifelong Zionist and so they used to debate the Israel-Palestine issue when they were kids and so they brought that feud into the Biden administration and of course Anthony Blinken won that won that round resoundingly.

[00:04:13]I love that we have a had a had a Frenchman as our Secretary of State who's been replaced by a gusano. Yes.

[00:04:22]Who doesn't even like go to the negotiations, he goes to UFC fights instead because the negotiations are like such a sham.