Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and several of her Republican colleagues are criticizing President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken for what the Republicans call the Biden administration’s continued appeasement of Iran. Republicans are also calling on Biden to reimpose electricity import sanctions. A recent waiver unlocks a fresh $10 billion in frozen assets for Iran to access. The Biden administration opened up the money to Iran after the Islamic extremist terrorist attacks on Israel. Iran supports terrorists who target Israel.
Following the terrorist attacks, Blackburn led 19 Senate Republicans in an initial call on President Biden to freeze a separate $6 billion ransom payment to Iran.
The Republican Senators have sent a letter to both Biden and Blinken addressing thee concerns.
Excerpts of the letter are below.
“We need not remind you that Iran is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, funneling an estimated $700 million to Hezbollah and $100 million to Hamas annually. On October 7th, the world watched with horror as Hamas, with Iran’s backing, brutally tortured and slaughtered innocent Israeli babies and children, and took Jewish families hostage in Gaza. That alone should be cause enough for you to forego giving Tehran another dollar. But if you need more convincing, look no further than last month, when the Iranian Foreign Minister visited the U.S. – with a visa provided by your State Department, no less – and threatened that the country would “not be spared from this fire” if Israel’s war against Hamas continues. It’s no coincidence that to date, U.S. forces have been attacked at least 56 times in less than a month by Iran-backed proxies.
Once again, the State Department claims that these newly released funds can only be used for humanitarian purposes. As we unfortunately learned after the October 7th attacks on Israel, money is a fungible asset. Giving Iran access to another $10 billion will only allow them to reallocate more funding from other sources to support terrorism. Additionally, you have placed no conditions on where this money must be kept, giving Tehran a direct line of access to cash that will allow them to continue fueling their proxy war against our allies.
Please think about donating below.