(Waterloo) Former President Donald Trump and other GOP contenders are blaming the Biden administration after Hamas militants launched the deadliest attack on Israel in decades. Critics of the US president blame a $6 billion transfer from the United States to Iran, although administration officials allege the money has not yet been disbursed.
Hamas’ surprise attack Saturday morning, during a major Jewish holiday, marks a new foreign policy front in a presidential election already unusually dominated by foreign affairs. Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has divided the Republican camp, with some like Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis questioning continued U.S. involvement, while others like former Vice President Mike Pence, insist that support for Ukraine’s military is vital to U.S. national security interests.
On Saturday, Republican candidates appeared united alongside Israel.
“Hamas’ terrorist invasion of Israeli territory and the killing of Israeli soldiers today, as well as the brutal killing of citizens, is an act of savagery that must and will be crushed,” Mr. Trump said during an appearance in Waterloo, Iowa.
Mr. Trump, like others, placed the blame squarely on the $6 billion. “American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks,” he said in a previous statement. Mr. Trump also argued that, under Joe Biden, the United States is seen as “weak and ineffective” on the world stage, opening the door to hostility.
“They didn’t have that level of aggression towards me. They didn’t have it. That would never have happened with me either,” Trump said, later adding in Cedar Rapids that Biden had “betrayed Israel” with the deal.
Mr. Biden on Saturday denounced the “unconscionable” aggression and pledged to ensure that Israel had “what it needs to defend itself” after the attack.
A controversial transfer
Much of the Republican criticism centers on a complex deal announced by the Biden administration in September to free five U.S. citizens detained in Iran. As part of the deal, approximately $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets held in South Korea were transferred to an account in Doha, Qatar.
Although Hamas is a Sunni Muslim group, it has a militant wing that has long maintained close ties to Iran, a source of funding and a Shiite power. Hamas and Iran are united by a common enmity toward Israel.
Administration officials said Saturday that no money from the Doha account has been spent so far.
The $6 billion amount does not represent U.S. taxpayer money, senior Biden administration officials stressed at the time of the deal, but rather payments made by South Korea to Iran to purchase oil in recent years. The funds were blocked in South Korea due to US sanctions.
That money is now held in a restricted account in Doha and is intended to be used only for humanitarian purposes — such as food and medicine for Iranians — and managed by what the administration has described as approved non-Iranian vendors.
Mr. DeSantis, in a video statement, accused Mr. Biden of “policies that have been easy on Iran” and have “helped fill their coffers.” Israel is now paying the price for these policies. We are going to stand with the State of Israel, they must eliminate Hamas and we must stand up to Iran.
And South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott claimed the attack was “Biden’s $6 billion ransom payment to work.”
“We didn’t just invite this aggression, we paid for it,” he said in a statement.
“Not a single penny of these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people,” Adrienne Watson, Iranian spokesperson, said on Saturday. word from the White House National Security Council
“These funds have absolutely nothing to do with today’s horrific attacks and now is not the time to spread disinformation,” she added.
Brian Nelson, Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, also stressed that “these restricted funds cannot go to Iran” and that “any suggestion to the contrary is false and misleading.”