Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Sunday that the Biden administration has given Iran, which reportedly greenlit Saturday’s Hamas invasion of Israel, far more than $6 billion worth of favors for the terrorist regime.
Ratcliffe, who served as national intelligence director under the Trump administration, appeared on Fox News on Sunday as experts and official claims appeared to tie Iran to the Hamas invasion, which led to the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Tehran helped Hamas plan the invasion and gave final approval on the Monday before the attack was launched, according to The Wall Street Journal.
President Joe Biden came under fire over the weekend for a controversial hostage deal that saw the United States providing Iran access to $6 billion and five prisoners in exchange for five American hostages held by Iran.
“Look, it’s not even just this $6 billion, which clearly is going to further enrich Iran,” Ratcliffe said. “It’s closer to $60 billion. If you look at what the Biden administration has done to help this Islamic terrorist regime in Iran by [stopping enforcement of] sanctions, by lifting restrictions, by allowing Iranian oil to increase by 650% over the last year from 400,000 barrels of oil a day to 3 million barrels of oil a day – all of this has strengthened” the Iranian regime.
Ratcliffe said that the “real problem” in the Biden administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East is the “daylight” now perceived between the U.S. and Israel.
“The relationship has changed in the last two years,” Ratcliffe said of the U.S. and Israel. “The Biden administration wouldn’t even meet with the Israeli prime minister, but at the same time they were courting, at times begging, this Iranian regime to do everything from restarting nuclear talks to engaging in these kinds of, ultimately, ransom payments.”
“Ultimately, everyone sees that in the Middle East, and that is really what is playing out here before us right now,” the former head of national intelligence said.
The Biden administration has attempted to cool U.S.-Iran relations since Biden took office. One of the president’s chief Middle East goals has been resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal, originally negotiated under for President Barack Obama and heavily criticized by Republicans and Israel as providing insufficient oversight.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said over the weekend that the Biden administrations hostage swap with Iran and the $6 billion account Iran was given access to do not play a part in the Hamas investigation. He said that the money is only available for humanitarian purposes and that, in response to counters that money is fungible, Iran has always devoted resources to terrorism.
“Iran has always used and focused its funds on supporting terrorism, on supporting groups like Hamas. And it’s done that when there’s been sanctions, it’s done that when there haven’t been sanctions, and it’s always prioritized that,” Blinken said.
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