McConnell and Cotton introduce Senate bill to freeze Iran's $6 billion freed by Biden

Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Mitch McConnell introduced a bill to stop the Biden administration from allowing Iran to access $6 billion in oil payments that were unfrozen as part of a prisoner swap last month.

"The path of resources, training, and lethal weapons from Tehran to terrorists throughout the Middle East is crystal clear. On Saturday, it enabled cold-blooded killers like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to perpetrate the deadliest day of violence against Jews in decades," Senate Minority Leader McConnell, of Kentucky, said on Wednesday when the bill was announced.

The $6 billion was for oil payments held in a South Korean bank account that was frozen after the Trump administration had sanctioned oil purchases from Iran. The money is what South Korea had intended to pay Tehran for the fuel until the U.S. sanctions in 2019. As part of a prisoner swap last month, the money was transferred to Qatar for Iran to access, and five Americans held in Iran were freed in exchange for the release of five Iranian prisoners.

"Iran is the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. In addition to funding Hamas’s devastating terrorist attacks against Israel, the regime’s proxies have attacked dozens of American targets in the region in recent years," Cotton, of Arkansas, said.

Republicans are not the only ones calling to freeze the funding following the Hamas invasion of Israel, which saw more than 1,200 people in Israel, including at least 22 Americans, murdered. Thousands more were injured and at least 100 more people were kidnapped in the brutal attack on civilians early Saturday morning.

Democratic Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) all called for the funds to be frozen, according to "The Hill."

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