Top former U.S. officials and national security experts slammed Democrat President Joe Biden late on Thursday. Biden’s administration had signaled it was willing to re-enter talks with the Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, to pursue a nuclear deal.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Biden administration would “accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program.”

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Iran has increasingly acted aggressively with its nuclear program, stockpiling large quantities of enriched uranium, installing advanced nuclear centrifuges, and blocking international investigators from monitoring its actions.

Left-leaning Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin wrote that the move from Biden comes after alleged Iranian backed terrorists attacked U.S. forces in Iraq earlier this week — to which Biden still does not appear to have responded.

“Other Iranian proxies, such as the Houthis in Yemen, are not rewarding Biden’s more diplomatic approach with restraint — responding to outreach with new attacks on civilians,” Rogin wrote. “Meanwhile, the leaders in Tehran are acting as if they have all the leverage, making demands and escalating their nuclear brinkmanship.”

Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who also served as Trump’s secretary of state, told the Free Beacon that the Trump administration had refused to appease the Iranian theocracy.

“The Ayatollah understands only strength,” Pompeo said. “I led a response to the Iranian threat that protected the American people from its terror and supported the Jewish state of Israel. Adopting the European Union model of accommodation will guarantee Iran a path to a nuclear arsenal.”

Nationally security expert Tim Morrison, who was on Trump’s National Security Council and is currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told The Daily Wire in a statement that the Biden administration was giving up all leverage as it tried to restart the “dangerously flawed” deal.

“The Biden Administration is repeating the mistakes of the Obama Administration,” Morrison said. “It’s making concessions to get nothing more than a meeting. The Iran deal was dangerously flawed in 2015. In 2021, with key provisions expired, it’s simply national security malpractice to return to that deal. The Trump Administration bequeathed Biden tremendous leverage over Iran — it must not squander it.”

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who has experience as a top terrorism expert, said in a statement, “It is concerning the Biden Administration is already making concessions in an apparent attempt to re-enter the flawed Iran deal.”

“The Trump Administration created leverage for President Biden on Iran–we should not squander that,” McCaul continued. “We need to secure a better deal that keeps the American people safe from the full range of Iran’s malign threats. The Biden [admin] must prioritize bipartisanship and stick to their assurance not to re-enter the deal until Iran comes back into full compliance with the JCPOA.”

“Iran takes cheating on the nuclear deal to the next level, fires rockets at Americans in Erbil just days ago, then threatens to keep nuclear inspectors out, and how does Biden respond? Absolutely chokes,” Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs told The Daily Wire. “And what a disastrous message to be sending to adversaries the world over.”

(Daily Wire).