Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, attends a graduation ceremony for a group of armed forces cadets in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (AP)
Refreeze Biden’s $6 billion gift to Iranian terror
Washington Examiner October 12, 06:30 AM October 12, 12:00 AM Video Embed
The Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on Wednesday just days after the Iranian-backed terrorists of Hamas murdered and raped civilians in southern Israel.
The two campaigns seem to be a coordinated effort by the Tehran tyranny to surround Israel in violence with the ultimate goal of wiping the country and its Jewish citizens off the map.
HAMAS ATTACK EXPOSES OUR IDEOLOGICALLY CAPTURED UNIVERSITIES
This turn of events is a devastating blow, we hope, to President Joe Biden’s lamentable Middle East foreign policy, which is built on appeasement and funding of Iranian terror. Biden can begin to make amends by pressing the government of Qatar to refreeze the $6 billion that he unfroze a month ago on 9/11, the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on the United States.
This Sunday, hours after Hamas’s first attack on Israel, Biden’s National Security Council promised that the $6 billion ransom Biden agreed to pay in exchange for five hostages had not yet been released to Iran. The money sat in a Qatari bank where it had been transferred from South Korea where it had been held at Washington’s request as part of sanctions on Iranian oil sales.
“Not a single cent from these funds has been spent,” an NSC spokeswoman said, “and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people.”
But if the Biden administration can monitor the $6 billion and make sure it is spent only on food and medicine, surely it must also have the ability to refreeze the money if the terms are violated. Otherwise, the terms were useless from the start.
After acknowledging that Iran was “complicit in this attack in a broad sense because they have provided the lion’s share of the funding for the military wing of Hamas,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan was pressed by news media to explain why the president was not trying to “refreeze the $6 billion that the U.S. helped unlock for them to get in exchange for the prisoners.”
In reply, Sullivan lamely repeated, “Not a dollar of that money has been spent.” That is a nonanswer. If the money hasn’t been spent, then it is right to ask if Biden stopping it going to the terrorist masterminds.
The sad reality is that Biden’s funding of the Iranian terror regime goes far beyond the $6 billion he paid for hostages. When he took office, he immediately reversed strict sanctions on Iranian oil sales. This appeasement was intended to entice Iran’s leaders back into President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Iran has reaped an extra $30 billion since Biden relaxed sanctions, five times the hostage ransom. That $30 billion has been spent, much of it on the sort of terrorism we are witnessing from Hamas and Hezbollah.
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Obama’s vision for a rebalanced Middle East built around a civilized and responsible Iranian regime was vaporous wish fulfillment. The nuclear deal was a terrible mistake. Biden’s decision to relax oil sanctions to revive it was bone-headed. Biden’s decision to unfreeze $6 billion compounded the litany of errors.
All these huge blunders contributed to the war now unleashed on Israel. Biden can begin to undo the damage he and Obama did to the region by refreezing the $6 billion. It won’t make everything right, but it would be a start.
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