Eli Lake, Columnist

Biden Offers a Failed Strategy on Iran

Re-entering a deal with a repressive regime would put America on the wrong side of Iranian history.

September 15, 2020 at 2:00 AM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaking about demonstrations in Iran, November 2019. — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaking about demonstrations in Iran, November 2019.
Photographer: SAUL LOEB/AFP

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On Sept. 12, the world saw again the true face of the Iranian regime. Despite a global campaign to spare the life of a 27-year old wrestling champion named Navid Afkari, he was executed after being forced to confess a crime he didn’t commit.

Afkari was one of tens of thousands of Iranians who took to the streets in 2018 in protest of a corrupt regime. He was arrested and, after being tortured, confessed to killing a security official, despite some video evidence that clears him of the crime.