Former Pentagon boss warns Biden admin giving the Middle East to Iran, is blind to terror threat

The former Trump administration Acting Defense Secretary warned Monday that the Biden team’s policies are threatening to hand the Middle East over to Iran through its planned withdrawal from Iraq and efforts to restart the controversial nuclear deal.

The warning comes as the Islamic regime continues to destabilize the region with its proxies and vows retribution against Israel, an American ally, after it carried out an assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil. 

Former Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who served in the role in the waning days Donald Trump’s presidency, said he worries that the Biden administration is on the verge of handing over the Middle East to Iran.

Specifically, President Biden is in talks to end the U.S. military mission in Iraq, which Miller says would make Iran a “huge winner” in the region by facilitating the regime’s plans to link its militant proxy groups from Lebanon, through Iraq and Syria, to its homeland. These same proxy groups allow Iran to threaten its enemies, both in and out of the region. 

For example, this weekend the Israeli Air Force conducted a preemptive bombing campaign to defend against a planned rocket attack by Lebanese Hezbollah—a key proxy of Iran, Israeli officials said. Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israeli territory for years, but significantly increased its attacks following the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel in solidarity with Hamas. 

Recently, another proxy group, the Houthis in civil war-torn Yemen have been attacking global shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, diverting trade flows from the Suez Canal. 

“We are in the midst of drawing, probably drawing down additional forces in Iraq. There's talk about total withdraw, I think,” Miller told the "John Solomon Reports" podcast on Monday. “I am convinced that there is some quid pro quo right now, secret quid pro quo with the Biden administration and the Iranian regime to basically hand over the region.” 

Pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, deployed as part of the U.S.-led international coalition assembled to defeat ISIS, Operation Inherent Resolve, would remove an obstacle in Iran’s path to transport weaponry and materials between its string of proxy groups, including Hezbollah. 

According to Miller, the Biden administration likely hopes to achieve two key goals from this settlement favoring Iran: encouraging Iran to “not dramatically attack Israel” and to revive the scuttled nuclear deal originally signed by President Barack Obama. 

“The Biden administration is so desperate to reestablish the nuclear deal that, remember, the Trump administration left because it's a crappy deal. Quite honestly, they're desperate to get back into that deal,” Miller said. 

Restoring Iran’s compliance with the Obama-era nuclear deal is a centerpiece of the Biden administration’s plan for the region. After his inauguration, the administration worked to revive the Iran nuclear deal, negotiated during the Obama administration. The agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), sought to limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities and prevent the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon. 

President Trump had withdrawn from the deal in 2015, claiming that it did nothing to deter Iran’s activities and only delayed its nuclear program. Instead, his administration enacted a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, which included, listing its Houthi proxy in Yemen as a terrorist organization, implementing new sanctions, and killing Qasim Soleimani, the Iranian general responsible for terrorist attacks. 

President Biden has worked to reverse the maximum pressure campaign in order to—unsuccessfully—bring Iran back to the negotiating table. 

After his inauguration, President Biden immediately reversed Trump’s foreign terrorist organization designation of the Houthis (Biden eventually walked back this decision in January amid the global shipping attacks). Then, last year, the Biden administration successfully lifted limited sanctions on the Iranian regime in exchange for a prisoner swap that freed up $6 billion in funds for the theocratic regime. In total, the Biden/Harris administration has freed up an estimated $70 billion in funds for Iran, Just the News previously reported. 

Instead of these policies bringing Iran back into compliance with the nuclear deal, the U.S. intelligence community assesses that the regime may have resumed its nuclear weapons program. This assessment follows an assessment from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that warned Iran had increased its stockpile of weapons-grade uranium. 

A State Department spokesperson told Just the News Monday that "the Biden Administration has not lifted a single sanction on Iran" and that it "continue[s] to increase pressure" on the regime. 

"The United States views Iran as an adversary and a state sponsor of terrorism. Nothing about that has changed. We continue to use all tools available to us to deter, confront, and disrupt the full range of Iran’s destabilizing and problematic behaviors, in close coordination with our allies and partners," the spokesperson added.

The State Department also confirmed to Just the News that discussions about the future of Inherent Resolve with Iraq are ongoing.

"We have held discussions with the Government of Iraq on the future of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) since last year, including when Prime Minister Sudani met with President Biden here in Washington in April," a State Department spokesperson told Just the News Monday. "Ten years after the Iraqi government invited the United States and the Coalition to fight ISIS, and five years after our collective territorial defeat of ISIS in Iraq, we see the need to deliberately and eventually transition to a bilateral security partnership across a full range of issues."

"These discussions are ongoing and we have nothing to announce at this time. This process builds upon previous bilateral strategic discussions on our mutual commitment to security cooperation and our shared interest in promoting regional stability," the spokesperson added.  

In addition to giving Iran breathing room in its own back yard, the reported plans for a pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq will conjure comparisons to President Biden’s widely criticized evacuation of American troops from Afghanistan.

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin reported that President Biden is negotiating with the government of Iraq to formally end Operation Inherent Resolve and subsequently withdraw all remaining U.S. troops from the country within a two-year time frame.  Yet, these plans come at a time when Iran-backed proxies in Iraq are continuing to launch attacks on U.S. forces, with some of the more recent strikes injuring U.S. service members.

Additionally, an ISIS resurgence in Northeastern Syria, facilitated by the chaos engulfing the region, shows that the global coalition’s mission to defeat the Islamic State is not yet accomplished. For example, ISIS has reportedly carried out attacks abroad in both Iran and Russia. Recently, the arrest of several Tajik nationals with ISIS affiliations who entered the United States raised concerns about the terror group’s ability to conduct attacks in the country. 

Monday also marks the anniversary of a deadly terror attack at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 13 U.S. service members as they helped to facilitate the United States’ final departure from the South Asian country. The hasty withdrawal, some argue, left the U.S. vulnerable to terror groups once again using the country as a safe haven. On Monday, a memorial service was held at Arlington National Cemetary for the 13 fallen soldiers. President Biden remained on vacation in Delaware, and Vice President Harris did not attend. GOP nominee, former President Trump attended the event. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Miller shares concern about vulnerabilities, saying the evacuation of U.S. assets left the country blind to what ISIS or other groups may be doing in Afghanistan. 

“But what we're seeing right now…is we don't have good eyes and intelligence sources that know what's going on there. And what is happening is ISIS and al Qaeda and other transnational terrorist groups—I’m very confident—are filling the vacuum out in the mountains and the training camps and whatnot, and getting ready to attack out of there again,” he said.