U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) called on President Joe Biden to enforce financial sanctions against Iran, which backed the assault on Israel earlier this week by the Hamas terrorist group.
“Now more than ever we must demonstrate our ironclad commitment to the U.S.-Israel relationship and our mutual stand against terrorism,” Rep. Steil wrote the president in an Oct. 10 letter. “The recent aggression by Hamas underscores the need to enforce our financial sanctions and deny revenue to the largest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran.
“Denying the Iranian regime funding means it has less money to spend on terror, missiles, and proxies like Hamas,” he wrote.
The congressman pointed out that the Biden administration has continued to allow the Iranian regime to evade U.S. sanctions by allowing them to move large amounts of sanctioned crude oil to countries like China without repercussions, according to his letter.
“If our sanctions are not enforced, we will give Iran more revenue to fund the regime’s destabilizing activities,” wrote Rep. Steil.
The lawmaker also urged President Biden to provide Congress with details about his administration’s approval of a recent sanctions waiver license that would have given Iran $6 billion in a prisoner-swap deal.
“I have advocated for transparency into the United States’ sanctions waiver license process to ensure our economic and foreign policy goals are aligned and we are not giving rogue regimes, like Iran, resources to fund death and destruction,” the lawmaker wrote.
According to numerous media reports, the U.S. government and Qatar on Oct. 12 agreed to block Iran from accessing any of the $6 billion it would have gained access to as part of the deal forged between the Biden administration and Tehran last month.