The Biden administration is being blasted for allowing billions of dollars to allegedly flow into Iran under a controversial sanctions waiver, even after Iranian-backed rebels launched deadly airstrikes against American forces and the Muslim country directly attacked staunch US ally Israel.
Last month, the White House extended the waiver, unlocking up to $10 billion more in frozen funds to supposedly enable Iraq to pay the Iranian government for electricity services, according to critics and the Washington Free Beacon. The Biden administration had already renewed the waiver program, established in 2018, in November. The extended waiver was set to expire again in March but was reapproved just six weeks after three US service members were killed and dozens more injured in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants in Jordan in late January.
This past weekend, Iran launched 300 drones and missiles at Israel in retaliation for an airstrike in Damascus earlier this month. The State Department insists such waivers are "necessary" while Iraq "weans itself off Iranian energy imports" and develops its domestic oil and gas production. The White House claims the unfrozen funds can only be used for humanitarian purposes.
However, some Republican lawmakers argue that a lack of transparency and accountability has resulted in the funds being used to pay for state-sanctioned terrorist operations in Iran. Earlier this month, a group of 13 Republican senators led by Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-S.C.) wrote a pointed letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for an end to such sanction waivers.
The senators called it "unfathomable" that the Biden administration believes making the funds potentially available to Iran serves US national security interests. "If we want to actually restore deterrence in the region, those funds should be placed further out of Iran’s reach, not closer," the blistering letter said. On April 9, the committee grilled Deputy Treasury Secretary Adewale Adeyemo about the "fungible nature" of the funds, ostensibly earmarked exclusively for humanitarian purposes.
Despite 1.4 million Americans calling for the Biden Administration to Stop the Iran Nuclear Deal and to maintain a freeze on $10B, the Biden Administration did it anyway. Now we must adapt and call for an end to Iran’s sanction waivers!
