President Joe Biden will allow the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, to operate absentee voter stations on U.S. soil for the country’s upcoming presidential election.
Voice of America, a U.S.-state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster, reported that Iranian Foreign Ministry official Alireza Mahmoudi recently informed Iranian state media that the country is planning to set up dozens of ballot stations across the U.S.
The country claims that the U.S. accounts for 30% of Iran’s diaspora, the largest percentage of any country, the report said.
“The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates there are about half a million people born in Iran or of Iranian origin in the U.S., while the Iranian American nonprofit group National Union for Democracy in Iran, or NUFDI, says it has a higher estimate of more than 1 million,” the report said.
The U.S. State Department told the publication that it does not believe that Iran’s election will be legitimate as corruption is expected.
The Biden administration — which has been widely criticized for being exceptionally weak on foreign policy, especially when it comes to Iran — claimed that it was not a big deal to allow Iran to conduct elections on U.S. soil because it’s been done in the past.
Richard Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that allowing Iran to continue running the elections on U.S. soil was “theater of the absurd.”
“How and why we would facilitate such a charade for a state sponsor of terrorism that is hunting Americans every day is beyond me,” said Goldberg, who worked in the Trump administration as director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the White House National Security Council. “He also questioned who would be operating Iran’s ballot stations in the U.S. and what relationship they have to the Iranian government.”
Iranian activist and actress Nazanin Boniadi, who lives in the U.K., responded to the move by Biden: “Preposterous. The concept of a free and fair election under the Islamic Republic is a fallacy.”
“While regime opponents are advocating for a boycott, the US inexplicably permits absentee ballots for this farce?” she added.
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