(ConservativeSense.com) – Presidential candidate and Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina says that the White House is trying to deflect complicity in releasing $6 billion to Iran for a hostage exchange, a deal some are claiming may have aided the radical militant Islamic group Hamas to carry out their recent attack on Israel.
Scott appeared on Newsmax’s “Saturday Agenda” and said the US “should stand shoulder to shoulder and back to back” with Israel. He then said that President Joe Biden “is complicit” in the attacks by Hamas that took place last week, claiming Biden paid $6 billion to Iran and that some of this money was “used once again in a terrorist attack.” Scott told Newsmax that “time and time again,” Iran funds “terrorism in the Middle East” and that Iran is Hamas’s number one funder.
Although it may not have been what Scott meant, his statement that the White House itself paid $6 billion to Iran is inaccurate because the money technically already belonged to Iran. The president struck a deal last month to allow Iran to transfer $6 billion in frozen assets to Qatar that were held in a bank in South Korea in exchange for the release of American prisoners. Critics also note that Biden’s haphazard way of withdrawing from Afghanistan could have also assisted Hamas through US weapons that were left behind.
Despite Scott’s claims and speculation from other Republicans about the deal with Iran, there’s no evidence any of that money has left the Qatari bank account, meaning it could not have funded the attack by Hamas. It’s also important to note that a spokesperson for Hamas, Ghazi Hamad, reported to the BBC that Iran supported the attacks last weekend, and a report from the Wall Street Journal reported that Hamas along with Hezbollah helped the Iranian government plan the attack.
Even if the money did not fund the attack and has yet to be released from Qatar, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn said the agreement should immediately be voided and the money frozen again.
Scott said Biden is “asleep at the wheel,” that the issue of Israel’s sovereignty and defense “is not a Republican or Democrat issue,” and that suggesting not retaliating against Hamas “is an abdication” of the US’s responsibility to their alley.
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