Iran has been reduced to its weakest point in decades, President Joe Biden said in a valedictory foreign policy speech on Monday, citing Tehran's dire economy, knocked-out air defenses and loss of Syria as an ally.
"Iran's air defenses are in shambles. Their main proxy, Hezbollah, is badly wounded, and as we tested Iran's willingness to revive the nuclear deal, we kept the pressure with sanctions. Now Iran's economy is in desperate straits," Biden said in a White House speech to applause.
"All told, Iran is weaker than it's been in decades," he added, also citing Washington's and other allies' assistance of Israel in shooting down drones and ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic launched in two direct attacks last year.
Biden has been repeatedly criticized by President-elect Trump, who is due to return to the White House next week, as being too soft on Iran.
In 2023, the Biden administration unfroze $6 billion in Iranian funds to bank accounts in Qatar in exchange for the release of five US-Iranian prisoners held by Tehran. That move was lambasted by Republican critics as indulging Iranian hostage diplomacy.
Amid bipartisan pressure following the Oct. 7 attack by Iran-backed Hamas against Israel, the Biden administration told lawmakers it would effectively refreeze those funds for the foreseeable future.
"You want more evidence we seriously weakened Iran and Russia? Let's take a look at Syria. President Assad was both countries' closest ally in the Middle East. Neither could keep him in power. Quite frankly, neither really tried very hard," Biden added.
"Now I cannot claim credit for every factor that led to Iran and Russia growing weaker in the past four years," Biden added. "They did plenty of damage all by themselves, (and) Israel did plenty of damage to Iran and its proxies, but there's no question our actions contributed significantly," he said without elaborating.
Hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said not heeding US warnings to ease up attacks on Iran's armed allies help put them on the backfoot.
Biden had counseled Netanyahu not to retaliate strongly after the Islamic Republic's first ever direct attack on Israel in April - advice he largely heeded. But the White House blessed a sharp response to another salvo in October in which Israel pounded military targets and destroyed Tehran's Russian-provided anti-aircraft missiles.
"Now major authoritarian states are aligning more closely - Iran, Russia, China, North Korea - but that's more out of weakness than out of strength," Biden said.
Data from oil tanker tracking firms shows that during Biden's presidency, Iran exported approximately 2 billion barrels of oil—a significant increase compared to the volumes recorded between 2019 and 2021.
Trump has pledged to crack down on the trade to deprive Iran of revenue for foreign military activities, saying he will pressure China - Iran's top customer - to stop buying.
