Elliott Abrams, who lied to Congress about his knowledge of the Iran-Contra affair, is now the administration’s envoy to Iran
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images From the administration that brought you a former open-pit-mining lobbyist as the Secretary of the Interior and a coal-mining lobbyist as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency comes another staffing decision defined by conflict of interest. Elliott Abrams — who was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra Affair — will now serve the Trump administration as its envoy to Iran.
Pardoned by George Bush in 1992, Abrams was a pivotal figure in the foreign policy scandal that shook the Reagan administration, lying to Congress about his knowledge of the plot to covertly sell weapons to the Khomenei government and use the proceeds to illegally fund the right-wing Contras rebel group in Nicaragua.
In another administration, an official involved in the foreign policy embarrassment of the Reagan administration might not be the perfect candidate for this role. But the neo-con’s aggressive stance toward Iran — as well as his loyalty established during the scandal, a must-have for successful Trump officials — appears to have made up for any red flags on his resumé. An outspoken critic of the Iran deal, Abrams is expected to help in the roll-out next week of the U.S.
With his new role, Abrams is once again splitting his attention between Latin America and the Persian Gulf, as he is still holding on to his prior role as special envoy to Venezuela. His appointment to that position last year was heavily criticized, including an appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in which Representative Ilhan Omar questioned why Reagan’s assistant secretary of state for human rights had such a poor record in his field.
For those hoping that the United States does not stir the simmering tension with Iran just seven months after the two countries were at the brink of war following the targeted strike on Qasem Soleimani, Abrams’s failure to deliver in Venezuela may provide hope. So far, he has been unable to manage his primary objective: Building up the prospects of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, whose failed uprising the Trump administration supported last year. That’s not to say he hasn’t stopped trying.
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