Twenty GOP senators, led by Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, have sent a letter calling on the Biden administration and the U.S. State Department to prevent Iranian access to $6 billion in funds Joe Biden promised the rogue regime for the release of American prisoners held by Tehran.
But in the wake of Iran-backed Hamas terror attack of October 7 – and more recently, Iran's threat to take preemptive action against Israel if the Jewish nation initiates ground action in Gaza – the lawmakers are demanding that that payment be rescinded, and that the "strictest sanctions admissible" be imposed on Iran.
During an interview Tuesday on Washington Watch, Blackburn asked a very simple question: Why are we giving money to Iran?
"This administration needs to be very clear-eyed about their policy with Iran – because they have not been," she stated. "When you have a muddled policy [and] you cause confusion with your words and actions, you end up getting adversaries that are emboldened … and that's exactly what you have seen with Iran."
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel Action, says freezing the assets or any funding to Iran ought to be more than just a "Republican" issue.
"I think that there ought to be bipartisan support for [this]. Iran is the largest sponsor of terror in the world, and it was the nation behind the terrorist attacks against Israel via Hamas and now Hezbollah in the north," Staver tells AFN.
"It has been no secret that Iran is the sponsor of terror – not only against Israel and the Jewish people, but they also would like to take out and take over a number of the other Middle Eastern countries, including obviously their ultimate target is the United States of America and Europe," he adds.
Blackburn argued that an Obama-era event emboldened Iran's leaders to do what they've done recently.
"They think that they've got the U.S. over a barrel, if you will, because they pulled off the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and got hundreds of billions of dollars shipped into them on pallets," she recalled. "[Using that money] they were able to enrich uranium – and they're wanting to use that uranium to do what? Build nuclear warheads."
And the terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah, Blackburn adds, are proxies for Iran. "They supply [each of those groups] with $100 million a year, plus weapons, plus training, plus supplies. So, they are sponsoring them.
"Basically, Iran sends them out to do the dirty work and to carry out attacks like they have carried out on Israel," the senator concluded.
Over in the House of Representatives, Texas Congressman August Pfluger and more than 100 other Republicans have introduced legislation to refreeze the funds the U.S. made available to Iran.
