WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday asked U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the efficacy of continuing the Trump-era sanctions on Iran, and the importance of funding the Global Engagement Center (GEC) in countering propaganda and misinformation from abroad as the Secretary justified the president’s FY2022 foreign affairs budget request before Congress.

On assessing the efficacy of Trump-era sanctions on Iran, Murphy said: “[I]n assessing the efficacy of the maximum pressure campaign, I think we have to have a reckoning with what we got. The Trump administration put on the table 12 demands—from what I can tell, none of them were met.”

Murphy continued: ‘…[I]n fact, isn't there evidence that Iran's behavior in many respects got worse, not better, during that time?...They broke out of the nuclear program, they start shooting at our troops again in Iraq, they upped their support for many of their proxies in the region, and they refused to come back to the table. It doesn't seem like we got a lot for the sanctions that were re-imposed, and the new sanctions that were imposed during the Trump administration, which calls into question what we would get by keeping them in place for another four years.”

Blinken agreed with Murphy that Iran’s behavior has gotten worse—not better—under the sanctions regime imposed under former President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign.

Murphy then went on to ask Blinken about the GEC’s role to counter Russian, Chinese and other propaganda around the world: “I know you've requested in your budget essentially flat funding for the Global Engagement Center, but my read is that there are more potential partners that the Global Engagement Center could work with around the world than there is funding. The Global Engagement Center is not really doing sort of direct counter propaganda work. They're going out and you know, making sure that independent journalists and truth tellers, and folks who are rooting out propaganda have the support to do so…What role do you envision GEC playing in our efforts to counteract Russian propaganda, but also non-state actor propaganda, Chinese propaganda around the world?”

On Tuesday, Murphy applauded the inclusion of his provision that more than doubles funding authorization for the GEC in order to counter propaganda and misinformation from countries like China and Russia in the Senate’s passage of the United States Innovation and Competition Act. Murphy along with U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) introduced the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act, which was signed into law in December 2016. The law enhanced the United States government’s capabilities for combating malign influence from America’s adversaries by establishing the GEC, which is charged with leading the U.S. government’s efforts to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation.

 

In March, Murphy along with U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), U.S. Representative David Cicilline (RI-01), and U.S. Representative Ami Bera (CA-07) proposed a $12 billion increase to the international affairs budget for Fiscal Year 2022 to better address America’s national security challenges. Investing in 21st Century Diplomacy called for the increased funding to be directed towards three specific challenges: (1) competing with China; (2) preparing for the next pandemic in a post COVID-19-era; and (3) fighting climate change.

You can read Murphy’s full exchange with Blinken below:

MURPHY: “…I wanted to just come back to the Iran nuclear deal for a moment. I think you answered this question, in part, in response to some comments from the Chair and the Ranking Member.

“But in assessing the efficacy of the maximum pressure campaign, I think we have to have a reckoning with what we got. The Trump administration put on the table 12 demands—from what I can tell, none of them were met. The country that I pay the closest attention to, Yemen, saw an increased amount of activity from Iran with respect to their proxy forces there. Our forces in Iraq started getting shot at again by Iran, Iran's proxies there.

“I guess I sort of come to the conclusion as we're sort of weighing whether to continue forward with the Trump era sanctions or waive or release them in exchange for a new commitment from Iran on its nuclear program, I think it's important for us to ask what we got for those sanctions. And in fact, isn't there evidence that Iran's behavior in many respects got worse, not better, during that time? Am I wrong about my assessment here?

“They broke out of the nuclear program, they start shooting at our troops again in Iraq, they upped their support for many of their proxies in the region, and they refused to come back to the table. It doesn't seem like we got a lot for the sanctions that were re-imposed, and the new sanctions that were imposed during the Trump administration, which calls into question what we would get by keeping them in place for another four years.”

BLINKEN: “Yeah, I share that assessment. I think that's right, and it's unfortunately borne out by the facts.”

MURPHY: “The second topic, and I’m surprised Senator Portman didn't bring it up because he normally does, we were together as part of this delegation in Ukraine. He and I, as you know, spent a lot of time working on standing up the capacity inside the State Department to combat misinformation.

“I know you've requested in your budget essentially flat funding for the Global Engagement Center, but my read is that there are more potential partners that the Global Engagement Center could work with around the world than there is funding. The Global Engagement Center is not really doing sort of direct counter propaganda work. They're going out and you know, making sure that independent journalists and truth tellers, and folks who are rooting out propaganda have the support to do so.

“I know we're still looking for someone to head up that capacity at the State Department. What role do you envision GEC playing in our efforts to counteract Russian propaganda, but also non-state actor propaganda, Chinese propaganda around the world?”

BLINKEN: “Senator, I think it's got a vital role to play and one that we want to see strengthened even further. It's as you know very well engaged in campaigns to educate, to expose, to mitigate disinformation and misinformation. And it is already as it stands really the premier platform for information sharing.

“I think there are about 400 partners across 29 or so countries at this point that the take advantage of it. It's worked very effectively, for example, to expose Russian websites that were removed from social media for propagating misinformation, disinformation from the PRC as well, in third country elections. It exposed that and put a light on that. And it's done very good I think open source mapping of some of the PRC's use of surveillance and data collection, for example, in Xinjiang. So we're seeing it effective across the board.

“I think that the request that we made is appropriate and will enable it not only to sustain but to actually grow its mission. Having said that, I'd welcome you know working with you to make sure that it is properly resourced and operating as effectively as possible. And yes, we are working on bringing a new leader to the enterprise.”

MURPHY: “Well, I know your personal commitment to this mission. I thank you for it. And I'd also commend to both the committee and to you, making sure that we have the right integration between the counter propaganda mission at State and through the GEC and the counter propaganda mission at Department of Defense. In the prior administration, I don't know that they were coordinating at the level that they could, something that we can do better on. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.”

BLINKEN: “Thanks, Senator.”

 

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