Biden under mounting pressure to refreeze $6 BILLION in ‘ransom’ money to Iran as White House says the country is ‘complicit’ in Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel
- Biden reached deal with Iran last month to transfer funds, freeing 5 US hostages
- GOP senators want to put a freeze on the Iranian funds back in place
- White House says there is ‘complicity’ due to Iran’s support for Hamas
President Joe Biden is facing pressure from Republican senators to reimpose a freeze on $6 billion in Iranian funds following this weekend’s brutal Hamas terror attack in Israel.
The Iranian regime was allowed to access the money under a recent deal that freed American hostages, and the funds are supposed to be used for humanitarian purposes.
But the Republicans say it could allow Tehran to ‘reallocate’ resources to finance further terror attacks.
Hamas continued to fire rockets at Israel from Gaza on Tuesday, following a coordinated attack on Saturday which killed over 900 Israelis and raised immediate suspicion of outside support.
Israel is preparing a potential ground invasion in response to the attacks.
GOP senators are calling on President Joe Biden to put back a freeze on $6 billion Iranian funds out of concern it could go to fund Hamas terror operations
‘To stand by and allow Iran access to these funds as Hamas infiltrates Israel and murders, rapes, and mutilates countless Israelis is unconscionable,’ 20 Republican senators wrote Biden on Monday.
‘Your administration claims these funds are only available for humanitarian use, but money is fungible, and there is a significant risk they could be used to further efforts by Iran or Hamas against Israel.’
Allowing the funds to flow into Iran’s economy ‘allows the Iranian regime to reallocate even more funds to supporting terrorism,’ they added, saying oversight of the funds is ‘not enough.’
![The White House says there is 'complicity' due to Iran's support for Hamas, but say there are facts that establish the Saturday operation](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/10/18/76387371-12615353-image-a-11_1696957313690.jpg)
The White House says there is ‘complicity’ due to Iran’s support for Hamas, but say there are facts that establish the Saturday operation
![Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/10/18/76387367-12615353-image-a-13_1696957324386.jpg)
![Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/10/18/76387363-12615353-image-a-14_1696957324386.jpg)
Signing onto the letter are Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), as well as Minority Whip Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
They are demanding the administration rescind waivers that allowed for the funding to be transferred to Qatar under a deal that freed five Americans who were being held in Iran.
The deal got completed last month. Following the Hamas attack on Israel, the Biden administration was forced to explain that the funding, which was already controversial, had not yet been released.
Signing onto the letter are Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), as well as Minority Whip Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In public comments this week, the administration has walked a delicate line – saying they had no information pointing to Iranian support for the attack, while acknowledging its past support for Hamas and for terror groups.
‘There’s a degree of complicity here, but Iran has been supporting Hamas for many, many years – tools, training, capabilities – certainly rhetorically but in more much more tangible ways than that,’ said White House national security spokesman John Kirby. ‘So, absolutely, there’s a degree of complicity here writ large.’
‘That said, we haven’t – and we are looking through the information streams. We haven’t seen hard, tangible evidence that Iran was directly involved in participating in or resourcing and planning these sets of complex attacks that Hamas pulled off over the weekend,’ he said.
He said the administration was ‘going to keep looking at it. Our Israeli counterparts are also actively looking, and even they have publicly said they don’t see the quote, unquote smoking gun.’
Kirby and other officials have refused to confirm a Wall Street Journal story that Iran helped plan the attack and gave the go-ahead during a Beirut meeting last Monday.
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