A group of Republican contenders and senators linked the $6-B worth of frozen Iranian funds released by the United States to the surprise attack launched by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Israel.
Speaking in front of thousands of his supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Saturday, former US President Donald Trump accused the Biden administration of betraying its ally Israel through the prisoner exchange deal.
To note, the prisoner exchange deal that took place last month between the US and Iran saw the release of five American prisoners in exchange for five Iranian citizens as well as the release of $6-B worth of funds owned by the Islamic Republic.
The $6-B Iranian assets had been frozen under US sanctions in South Korean banks after relations faltered between the two countries in 2019.
The frozen Iranian assets were later transferred to an account in Doha, Qatar after negotiations surrounding the prisoner exchange deal turned successful last month.
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also questioned Washington’s continued involvement and suggested that the Biden administration “empowered” Iran after it agreed to transfer the funds.
He added that the U.S. should hold Iran accountable for financially supporting Hamas.
Republican senators urge Biden to freeze $6-B in Iranian funds
Meanwhile, American senators under the Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP) wrote a letter to President Joe Biden on Monday evening, asking for the government to freeze once more the $6-B Iranian assets.
They argued that the “money is fungible” or mutually interchangeable and could be used further by Iran or Hamas against Israel.
A Hamas official previously denied that Iran supported the operation but former U.S. intelligence and military officers claimed that the sophisticated tactics used by the Palestinian militant group used a similar approach that Iran and its proxies often use against its opponents with superior conventional forces.
In the wake of the allegations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken maintained that the $6-B funds resting in Qatar banks remain untouched and insisted that no US taxpayer dollars were involved.
