President Biden faced renewed pressure to rethink his diplomatic outreach to Tehran after the Justice Department late Tuesday charged four Iranian intelligence officials with plotting \u2026<\/b>
\nPresident Biden faced renewed pressure to rethink his diplomatic outreach to Tehran after the Justice Department late Tuesday charged four Iranian intelligence officials with plotting to kidnap a U.S. journalist in New York City. The indictment unsealed Tuesday night is the latest complication for the Biden administration \u2018s push to revive the 2015 deal with Iran to limit the Islamic republic\u2019s nuclear program in exchange for economic sanctions relief. The White House has persisted in that effort despite continued provocative behavior by Iran, including the routine harassment of U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf and frequent rocket attacks by Iran-linked militias targeting American military personnel in the Middle East. Now faced with evidence from his own Justice Department that Iranian intelligence services are allegedly pursuing U.S. citizens on American soil, critics say the president must draw a line in the sand and get tough in his stance toward Iran. \u201cThis revelation serves as another reminder that the Biden administration bending over backwards to re-enter the [ Iran nuclear deal} is likely sacrificing our leverage to compel Iran to cease its other malign activities,\u201d said Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. \u201cThis is a regime that holds American hostages and is actively trying to kidnap an American from the streets of New York. President Biden should not enter into any deals with Iran without an end to these assaults on our citizens.\u201d Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the dissident Center for Human Rights in Iran, said Wednesday the purported kidnap plot was not \u201can isolated incident.\u201d Iranians critical of the regime \u201cwill continue to be targeted by state agents if the international community\u2014particularly countries Iran is currently negotiating with such as the U.S. and in Europe\u2014does not address Iran \u2019s worsening human rights record through sustained, comprehensive policies,\u201d Mr. Ghaemi warned in a statement. The Justice Department said it has charged four Iranian nationals \u2014 Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, aka Vezerat Salim and Haj Ali,50; Mahmoud Khazein,42; Kiya Sadeghi,35; and Omid Noori,45 \u2014 with conspiracies related to kidnapping, sanctions violations, bank and wire fraud, and money laundering. The four individuals allegedly tracked and plotted to kidnap the U.S. journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad, an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime. Ms. Alinejad said in a video message late Tuesday night that she\u2019d been informed by the FBI eight months ago that she had been targeted. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it, here in the U.S.,\u201d she told the Voice of America Persian News Network. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe they had taken videos of me while I was going about my daily life. They\u2019d taken photos of me, my husband, and his children.\u201d U.S. authorities said the four Iranian intelligence agencies allegedly spent the past year watching Ms. Alinejad. It\u2019s not clear, officials said, what would have happened if they had successfully gotten her on Iranian soil. \u201cAs alleged, four of the defendants monitored and planned to kidnap a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin who has been critical of the regime\u2019s autocracy, and to forcibly take their intended victim to Iran, where the victim\u2019s fate would have been uncertain at best,\u201d acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement. \u201c\u2026 A U.S. citizen living in the United States must be able to advocate for human rights without being targeted by foreign intelligence operatives.\u201d Iran \u2018s efforts to kidnap Ms. Alinejad allegedly date back further. Iranian officials in 2018 tried to lure the journalist to a third country and ultimately bring her to Iran, court documents charge. The indictment comes at a pivotal moment for the White House, which is already struggling to defend its controversial diplomacy with Tehran at a time when the Iranian government is targeting Americans in multiple ways. In Iraq and Syria, Iran -linked Shiite militias have routinely targeted U.S. troops in recent months, leading Mr. Biden to order at least two rounds of airstrikes against those groups. The Pentagon has even directly threatened Iran with \u201cserious consequences\u201d if the regime and its proxy groups continue targeting Americans. U.S.- Iran talks have continued despite those hostilities. But some foreign policy specialists say the kidnapping plot should be the last straw. \u201c Iran remains undeterred from reaching onto American soil,\u201d said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank Foundation For Defense of Democracies. \u201cThese are features, not bugs, of the regime in Iran and its competing intelligence and security apparatuses. Let the latest indictment be a warning,\u201d he said. \u201cNow is certainly no time to be talking about removing terror sanctions or any other sanctions frankly, from the world\u2019s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.\u201d The Biden administration is seeking to resurrect the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, which put new limits on Iran \u2018s nuclear-weapons program in exchange for access to frozen bank accounts. Former President Trump pulled the U.S. out of that deal partially because it did not address Iran \u2018s support for terrorism and other malign behavior across the Middle East and around the world. While the exact details of U.S.- Iran negotiations are somewhat murky, it does not appear that Iran \u2018s support for terrorism or any other issues outside of the nuclear program are a part of the current discussion. The talks are believed to be nearing the finish line, though key differences remain between the two sides. State Department spokesperson Ned Price this week downplayed the notion that a deal may be reached soon. \u201cWe\u2019re prepared to return to a seventh round of talks,\u201d he told reporters Tuesday. \u201cWe\u2019ve been equally clear that there\u2019s not a deadline, a firm deadline that we have in mind as of right now, but we\u2019ve made no secret of the fact that we are considering the implications of Iran \u2019s nuclear advances for a potential return to the JCPOA.\u201d<\/p>\n