Florida Congressional Republicans Want Biden to Stop Iran From Accessing Billions in Funds

Late last week, nearly 100 members of the US House of Representatives sent a bipartisan letter to President Joe Biden urging him to take concrete actions that would prevent Iran from accessing billions of dollars in additional subsidization of Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel. In the letter, members expressed concern about the Iranian regime’s continued support for terrorist groups, including Hamas, and their threats against the Israeli people.

US Representative Gus BilirakisR-Fla., Vern BuchananR-Fla., Cat CammackR-Fla., Scott Franklin, R-Fla., Carlos JimenezR-Fla, Anna Paulina LunaR-Fla., Bill PoseyR-Fla., John Rutherfordand R-Fla., Michael WaltzR-Fla., and Dan Webster, R-Fla., signed the letter below.

Dear President Biden:

Recent reports of the involvement of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in planning and giving the “final green light” to Hamas’s war of terror against Israel require an immediate response. Left unchecked, the Iranian regime’s continued support for terrorist groups and attempts to wipe Israel off the map will only become more brazen and destabilizing to the region.

While Secretary Blinken stated that your administration “[has] no evidence is seen that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack,” senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials said that officers of the Corporate Revolutionary Revolution had been working with Hamas since August to prepare air, land and sea invasions of Israel. This, combined with years of arms and training from Iran, allowed Hamas to fire thousands of rockets at Israeli civilian targets and invade communities, killing and maiming hundreds of innocent people, including at least 22 Americans.

Your administration recently released $6 billion in frozen funds to Iran in exchange for American hostages. Our concern—a concern that has become more acute in light of Iran’s support for a terror war against Israel that already amounts to the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust—is that the Iranian regime will use every available financial tool to is further fueling this war against Israel, funding other terrorist sponsors in the region such as Hezbollah, who are exporting genocidal terrorism to Iran, and accelerating Iran’s nuclear build-up. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made it clear that the funds would be used “where we need them.”

Iran’s “need” is the destruction of Israel. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei stated: “This cancer [Israel] will definitely be eradicated, God willing, at the hands of the Palestinian people and the resistance forces throughout the region. Iran’s United Nations mission said the measures taken by Hamas – which included rape, kidnapping, torture, bombings and assassinations – “constituted fully legitimate self-defense” and that the regime “firmly stands[s] in unwavering support of Palestine.

To prevent Iran from accessing tens of billions of dollars to further subsidize this terrorism, we ask that you take immediate action, including but not limited to:

1. Freezing the $6 billion provided in exchange for hostages, as well as $10 billion in released funds based in Iraq, and withholding all releases, general licenses, and specific licenses for the use or use of such funds. In September, the State Department said that “we have the ability to freeze [the released funds] again if necessary. This weekend’s events demonstrate that need.

2. Full implementation of sanctions on Iranian oil exports to China, which have not been implemented for months, even though China’s crude oil imports from Iran have set a new record.

3. Preventing Iran from accessing additional Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) from the International Monetary Fund, through which they have quick access to $6.7 billion, and blocking further funding to Iran in upcoming SDR packages.

Mr. President, this weekend you said, “In my administration, support for Israel’s security is steadfast and unwavering.” We share that sentiment and stand ready to work with you to back it up with strong, bipartisan legislative and executive action. Denying the terrorist-sponsoring regime in Tehran access to the means by which it can export chaos is an important step in this direction

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