In a recent gesture of total ambivalence, the Biden administration has granted Iraq a 4-month waiver allowing the release of $10 Bn dollars to Iran, originally blocked by U.S. sanctions. The decision comes after the wake of the attacks on Israel and the ensuing conflict in Gaza. The aid is perceived as being ‘fungible’ and it has been insisted upon that it will be used for Iran’s humanitarian and ‘non-sanctionable’ needs such as food and medicine.

The culpability of the U.S. militaristic support of an unequivocal enemy of the state has been written off within the pretext that money is fungible, and that the situation has been thoroughly vetted.

According to Iran International, a Persian language news television, “American troops in Iraq and Syria are attacked by Iran-backed groups almost daily.”

In response to this purported misstep on the part of the Biden administration, the U.S. Congress will begin conversations about the importance of not allowing Iran, which funds terrorist organizations like Hamas, access to the $6 Bn President allowed them through Quatar in September in order to bring back five Iranian-Americans who were held hostage in Iran.

“We must deny these terror groups Iran’s resources by permanently freezing the $6 Bn in Qatar, $10 Bn in Iraq, and enforcing sanctions for China’s purchases of Iranian oil,” said Senator Jim Risch, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“We’re bringing a bill to the Floor this Thursday that will freeze the $6 Bn that Joe Biden wants to give to Iran,” the House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Tuesday.

On Wednesday’s rule vote, GOP objectors expressed dual concerns. First, they opposed the Commerce-Justice-Science bill for not going far enough to cut FBI spending, despite 9 percent cuts already baked in. Second, they didn’t like that the rule governing debate on the Iran bill was “closed,” precluding members’ ability to offer amendments.

H.R. 6000, the “Revoke Iranian Funding Act of 2023”, offered by Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), prevents resources from being diverted to help fund Iran’s proxy wars by rescinding the waiver transmitted to Congress on September 11, 2023, which released Iranian funds for humanitarian purposes from South Korea to Qatar.

On November 14th the House Financial Services Committee passed a total of eleven bipartisan pieces of legislation in the wake of the barbaric attack on Israel by Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists and ongoing geopolitical turmoil.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, speaking at a news conference earlier this month in Tel Aviv, said that Iran had neither accessed nor spent any of the $6 billion, adding: “We have strict oversight of the funds, and we retain the right to freeze them.”

 

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202311150106