12 GOP AGs urge Biden to stop sanctions relief for Iran

A group of Republican attorneys general on Wednesday wrote to President Joe Biden, urging him to halt sanctions relief for Iran in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that prompted the ongoing fighting in Gaza.

"As our States’ top law enforcement officials, we write, five months after the horrific Iran-sponsored terror attack on Israel and five months into non-stop Iran-sponsored terrorism directed against U.S. interests, to urge you to stop giving sanctions relief to the Islamic Republic of Iran," the group, led by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, wrote.

The group of Republicans further admonished Biden, saying that his "administration has already given almost one billion dollars to the U.N. agency that employed terrorists. We urge you to stop before compounding the problem by giving access to as much as ten billion dollars to one of the world’s top funders of terrorism—Iran."

They specifically highlighted a November 2023, 120-day sanctions waiver Biden issued for Iran. Said waiver, they asserted, allowed Iran to access more than $10 billion in funds abroad.

"We do not know whether more transactions have been conducted using Iran’s frozen terror fund," they continued. "But we do know what Iran has been doing with its money since you issued the November waiver: Attacking and killing Americans, attempting to shut down international shipping through the Red Sea, and launching non-stop terrorist attacks against Israel on multiple fronts."

Iran is known to support proxy groups across the Middle East, including the Yemen-based Houthis and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The state-operated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), moreover, is a designated terrorist organization. The Houthis, in particular, have attracted considerable attention in recent months over their harassment of maritime shipping in the Red Sea.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.