More than 40 Republican senators urged President Joe Biden on Wednesday to halt talks with Iran over possible “sanctions relief” with Israel facing rocket attacks from Hamas this week.
The lawmakers said Iran is a “longtime financial and material supporter of Hamas,” which was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 1997, and added that lifting or reducing punishments levied by former President Donald Trump’s administration would embolden a regime “that seeks to destroy Israel.”
“Over the past couple days, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, who are funded by Iran, have launched a series of rocket attacks into Israel,” the senators wrote in a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner. “They are targeting Israeli civilians and cities, including Israel’s capital Jerusalem. This is troubling as members of your administration are currently in Vienna negotiating with Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.”
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“In light of these recent attacks by Hamas against Israel, the United States should take all steps necessary to hold Tehran accountable and under no circumstances, provide sanctions relief to Iran.”
More than 70 people have been killed in the conflict, of which 65 were killed in Gaza, including 16 children, following Israeli airstrikes. The remainder of the dead have been slain in Israel as the two sides have traded more than 1,000 missiles since Monday in what is being described as the worst flare-up in tensions in seven years.
Hamas started firing rockets toward Israel in a tense situation that boiled over with a looming Israeli Supreme Court decision on whether to uphold the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah area in east Jerusalem.
Experts have posited that the violence may escalate into all-out war.
“We’re escalating towards a full scale war,” Tor Wennesland, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said in a tweet. “Stop the fire immediately.”
The group of Republicans, citing Iran’s apparent support of Hamas’s actions toward the U.S.’s ally, called on the Biden administration “to immediately end negotiations with” the regime.
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“The United States engaging in active negotiations with Iran and potentially providing billions of dollars in sanctions relief will no doubt contribute to Iran’s support of Hamas and other terrorist organizations who attack Americans and our allies,” they wrote. “We call on you to immediately end negotiations with Iran, and make clear that sanctions relief will not be provided. Doing so would demonstrate a firm commitment to our closest ally in the region and to our own security interests.”
