Wang Xiyue is pictured with the Trump administration’s Iranian envoy Brain Hook in Switzerland on Dec. 7, 2019.
Wang Xiyue, a Chinese-American history scholar who was once illegally imprisoned by Iranian authorities for three years on espionage charges and eventually returned to the United States after being rescued by the Trump Administration, recently said he opposed Biden‘s nomination of Robert Malley, a senior adviser under Obama, as his special envoy to Iran because Malley’s appeasement of Iran would not work.
The Times reported on February 8 that Biden had abandoned the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy on Iran after taking office, and wanted to use Malley, a senior adviser on the Middle East under Obama, as the U.S. president’s special envoy to Iran, while reinstating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed by the Obama administration and Iran. Wang Xiyue, a historian at Princeton University, expressed his disappointment.
These were the policies of the former Obama administration toward Iran, and he once endorsed these policies of the Obama administration toward Iran and believed that the international community could change the Iranian government for the better by easing relations with Iran, however, his experience of being illegally detained by Iranian authorities made him realize that Iran is not willing to change by engaging with the international community or easing relations with the international community, he said. “This U.S. government is relying on trying to push for a change in Iranian behavior by increasing engagement with Iran and easing relations with Iran, but Iran has no willingness to change.”
A native of Beijing, Xiyue Wang, who holds a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University, was returning to the United States on Aug. 8, 2016, from his research on “19th Century Persian Regional Dynasties” in the field in Iran when he was detained by Iranian authorities on espionage charges and sentenced in July 2017 to 10 years in Iran’s Evin Prison, where he was held for three years. Evin Prison (Iran) for three years. He was finally rescued by the Trump administration on Dec. 7, 2019.
Wang Xiyue said that at the Time of his arrest, Marley was a senior Middle East adviser to the Obama administration, which was too busy signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran to care about rescuing him from his predicament.
In late January, after receiving news that Biden was preparing to appoint Marley as his Iranian envoy, Wang Xiyue tweeted, “Marley was the Obama administration’s senior Middle East adviser when I was held by Iran, and he played no active role in my rescue, which, if he is appointed, will mean that American hostages held by Iran will not be a U.S. government priority.”
The report said that Wang Xiyue, like Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British national of Iranian descent who is still being held in Evin prison, was arrested after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and that Ratcliffe’s arrest set in motion five years of “hostage diplomacy” between the British government and Iran ” during which there was little evidence of any positive Iranian attitude toward Western rescue efforts, but Wang Xiyoshi was successfully rescued by the Trump administration.
Marley was involved in the first round of negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, and as a result, hawks and pro-Israeli figures in the United States are very unhappy with Marley. As a presidential envoy, Marley’s appointment does not require congressional approval, so he would begin negotiations with Iran immediately if he wished. Although he has not yet presented the details of his readiness to negotiate with Iran, whatever tactics he enables, it will be an attempt to change Iran by engaging with it.
Wang Xiyue believes that this indicates that the Biden Administration will repeat the mistakes it has made before. He said, “The Biden administration needs to reverse their policy of appeasement toward Iran, because that policy doesn’t work.”
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