During an appearance on Fox News over the weekend, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) blasted the Biden administration for making a deal with Iran to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian assets in exchange for five detained Americans.
According to the New York Times, the U.S. will be transferring “nearly $6 billion of Iran’s assets in South Korea, putting the funds into an account in the central bank of Qatar.” The funds will supposedly be controlled by Qatar, which will only be allowed to give Iran access to the money to pay for “humanitarian purchases.”
The Biden administration has reportedly agreed to a prisoner swap with Iran alongside the money, promising to free Iranian criminals who have been convicted of evading sanctions — which were imposed against Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Speaking with host Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday,” McCaul argued that the money that the Biden administration plans to unfreeze will go toward helping Iran finance their “terror operations” and “nuclear bomb aspirations.”
His comments came during a discussion about issues in the Middle East, including funding the Biden administration has been sending to Afghanistan.
McCaul stated that the Biden administration’s claims that the Ayatollah would have no control over the money were ludicrous — arguing that the funds would be used to “prop up their proxy war, terror operations, and their nuclear bomb aspirations.”
He went on to note that, amid these prisoner swap negotiations, the Biden administration is beginning to discuss the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) again — which is commonly known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, a disastrous deal made by the Obama administration that unfroze Iranian assets and allowed the terror-supporting nation to continue with its nuclear program with restrictions.
Here's the deal with the Iran Nuclear Deal. pic.twitter.com/DejmzzlYsx
— PragerU (@prageru) September 9, 2022
“They are now starting to talk about the JCPOA all over again, which in my judgment, will lead us down a course to a legal nuclear bomb in Iran,” the Texas senator added. “Prime Minister Netanyahu came out strongly against this. I think we’re going back to the mistakes of the past.”
“Our special envoy to Iran to negotiate the JCPOA is under investigation for mishandling classified information,” McCaul continued. “He has the most sensitive information as our top negotiator to Iran, and to the Ayatollah, now under investigation for mishandling classified information, very troubling story.”
