At least one lawmaker is urging President Joe Biden to freeze the $6 billion in funds recently unlocked to Iran as reports emerge that Tehran was directly behind the terrorist group Hamas' deadly incursion into Israel over the weekend.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) helped Hamas leaders plot the attack and in fact approved the operation during a meeting last week in Beirut.
Though Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Sunday that "not a single dollar" of the $6 billion had been spent by Iran after the U.S. released it last month in a prisoner swap, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., stepped up Monday to make obvious the optics and urged the administration to re-freeze the funds.
"Biden's policy on appeasement, including money for hostage deals, must come to an end," McCarthy said. "His policy has only emboldened terrorists. And handing over $6 billion to Iran only helps the cause. In explaining that to members of Congress, they said they had provisions to refreeze the money if Iran has done something wrong. They should freeze the money back today."
McCarthy, who has said he would return as speaker in the event of a stalemate by the GOP-led lower chamber in choosing a new one, due to the crisis in Israel, made the comments during an address Monday in the aftermath of Saturday's incursion.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also called upon Western allies to reimpose sanctions on Iran, writing, "There are already indications this war was orchestrated with considerable assistance from Tehran."
"The civilized world must impose real costs on terrorists and those who support or condone them. There should be no haven for Iran’s agents of death," McConnell wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. "The West should reimpose extensive multilateral sanctions on Tehran and deny Iranian planes overflight rights. Impound the shipping vessels Iran uses to circumvent sanctions. Close Iranian banks with access to the West, and cease the Iranian operations of European businesses. Treat Iranian officials like pariahs and sink Iranian naval boats that threaten international shipping."
The Biden administration last month unfroze $6 billion of Iran's money and agreed to an exchange of five Iranians for the five Americans who were detained in the terrorist nation. Blinken said Sunday that Iran had a "right to use these monies for humanitarian purposes."
While the Journal reported that the IRGC had been working with Hamas since August on strategy to breach Israel's borders, Blinken insisted that there's no "evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack."
Iran's United Nations mission denied involvement, calling the "Palestinian resistance fiercely autonomous," but two Hamas officials gave conflicting accounts as to whether Iran was involved.
Mahmoud Mirdawi, a senior Hamas official, called it a "Palestinian and Hamas decision," while Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad told the BBC on Saturday that Iran gave its full support to launch the attacks.
Nathan Sales, the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism, told Newsmax on Monday that "Iran's fingerprints are all over" the attack on Israel.
"An attack of this scale, involving this kind of money and this degree of planning, it can only happen with state support, and I've got to tell you: Iran's fingerprints are all over this attack," Sales said.
Whether factions of Iran's leadership knew and helped coordinate while other did not, McCarthy said it's splitting hairs.
"Three years ago there was not war in Europe or in Israel, but today there is," McCarthy said. "The United States must reinstate the maximum pressure campaign against Iran. Refreezing the $6 billion is only the start."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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