The United States will never negotiate with terrorists and never pay ransom for hostages.
Well, not really. Even though Iran has been designated a terrorist regime by the State Department and Biden allowed Iran access to $6 billion in frozen oil funds, we still don’t do deals with terrorists.
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Unless Joe Biden is president.
On September 22, Iran released five American hostages held on trumped-up espionage charges in exchange for the U.S. unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian assets. We didn’t know it at the time, but in late September, Hamas was putting the finishing touches on their plan to attack Israel on October 7.
We know that Iran supports Hamas to the tune of $70-100 million a year. While none of the unfrozen funds assisted Hamas in its attack, the thought of rewarding the terrorists with $6 billion that they would be able to spread around the Middle East to their proxy militias is tough to swallow.
The U.S. House agrees. It passed a bi-partisan measure to deny Iran (and Hamas) the $6 billion they were due for the hostage release.
“With such instability in the region, the last thing we need to do is to give access to $6 billion to be diverted to more Iranian-sponsored terrorism,” Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said during a debate.
US officials have rebuffed this criticism, noting that not a single dollar has yet to be made available to Iran and insisting that when it is, it can only be used for humanitarian needs.
Republican critics like McCaul say that despite the money being restricted to aid, it is fungible, and could free up other funds for Tehran to provide support to Hamas like they believe it did before it attacked Israel in early October.
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In addition to denying Iran the cash, the bill would impose additional sanctions on the funds to prevent their transfer to Iran and would also sanction any country or individual involved in processing the transfer of the funds.
“Iran, of course, as Hamas, is a murderous and corrupt regime. They’re not pleasant. And this isn’t easy,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said during the floor debate. “But thanks to this agreement, five American families are now home again.”
He added, “And Iran has lost the leverage of holding these American hostages.”
The ignorant fool. Doesn’t giving Iran access to these funds incentivize them to snatch a few more Americans off the streets of Iran? Iran hasn’t lost any “leverage” over the U.S., not in the slightest. They’ve invited Iran to inflict more pain on American families.
High-ranking US officials have sought to defend the decision to negotiate with Iran despite its track record of supporting terrorism against the US and its allies. But officials have also conceded that Iran’s influence over the various groups is undeniable.
“Hamas wouldn’t be around in the way that it is without the support that it’s received from Iran over the years,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during interviews after the attack. But he acknowledged that “we have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack.”
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But it’s a dead certainty that Iran had advance knowledge of the October 7 attack. Hamas was not going to risk alienating its primary benefactor by staging the biggest attack on Israel in its history alone. Iran knew. Even if they didn’t help plan the attack, their $100 million contribution helped make it possible.
The United States should not be obligated to keep any agreement with these terrorists.