President Joe Biden must look at what actions need to be taken in Yemen against the Houthi rebels to prevent commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea from being put at risk, Rep. Mike Turner, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday.
"The fact that the president's not doing that is giving Iran a total pass and the ability to operate without consequences in the area," the Ohio Republican said on ABC News' "This Week." "This is a franchise of Iran again just like Hezbollah and Hamas are, and the administration's symmetry is curious."
His comments come after U.S. Central Command reported earlier Sunday that the U.S. military shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles fired toward a container ship by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and that hours later, U.S. forces opened fire and killed several armed crews after four boats tried to attack the same ship. Nobody aboard the container ship was injured.
However, Turner said it's "significant" that the administration still is not responding to Houthi escalation in the region, particularly the operations going on in Yemen.
He added that the Houthi terrorists, along with Hezbollah and Hamas are satellites of Iran.
"This administration has been very timid in responding to escalations by Iran," he said. "In order to be able to address this, they're going to have to look at operations into Yemen where the capabilities are resident, where they continue to reload them and they put at risk the U.S. military."
Aerial attacks on Ukraine are climbing, and Ukraine has hit a city inside Russia in recent days. Turner said he thinks the escalation stems from the Biden administration "not providing the type of aid and assistance to Ukraine to be able to do the job that needs to be done."
The administration's policy is for Ukraine to push Russia out of Ukraine, and recapture Crimea, "but they're not giving them the weapon systems and the capability to do so," said Turner.
However, the funding for Ukraine is tied up in "the administration's failure to address the border crisis," Turner said, addressing the impasse between the White House and Congress in getting a massive aid bill passed.
The administration "has been given the ability to provide long-range lethal weapons and weapons that would make a difference, the type that Ukraine is calling for that could change the outcome of really Russia's configuration, its deployment in the area, and the Biden administration fails to do so," said Turner.
Meanwhile, more than 6 million immigrants have entered the country since Biden took office, which has created an "unprecedented burden" on many of the nation's cities, he said.
"You see the mayor of New York and cities across the country that are having huge impacts and calling on the administration to address it," said Turner. "This is the opportunity to come to Congress and say, we'll address the issue of securing our border and we'll move forward with the rest of the national security package that includes Ukraine and Israel."
Deals are being discussed to bolster personnel at the border and toughen asylum protocols, but that is not enough, the congressman added.
"The 'remain in Mexico' policy worked during the Trump administration," he said. "We're going to need a border that has a barrier. We're going to have top some controls of our border. Every sovereign nation has to control its border. This administration has an opportunity to step up to the plate and address it."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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