Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., called on National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to resign and said the U.S. government needs to re-freeze the $6 billion in Iranian assets.
When asked about Sullivan, Blackburn said: “He has not served this country or the president well, and I think it is time for him to go.”
“When you look at what happened with the first Iran deal, when you look at what has happened with the second Iran deal, when you look at the easing of sanctions that has allowed Iran to up their oil sales… the advice that he has given the president has not served the American people or our security well,” she continued.
She advised freezing the money that was to be given to Iran as part of a prisoner swap, to withhold funding from the country that is the world’s preeminent state sponsor of terror, which has Israel as its “number one target.”
It funds “90%” of Hezbollah and Hamas, the latter of which unleashed the attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people in the country, Blackburn said.
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Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., urged the U.S. government to freeze $6 billion it had prepared to release to Iran for aid following Hamas attack on Israel. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
FOX News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich asked Blackburn about officials denying that the Iranian government had any direct connection to Hamas’ attack on Israel.
“But the U.S. and its allies have not found any evidence directly linking Tehran,” she said, quoting a New York Times report. “That would be in line with what we’ve heard before, but this was based on interviews with three Iranians affiliated with the IRGC — the Revolutionary Guards — and the senior leadership.”
Blackburn responded: “What we know is that Iran is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism. What we know is that Iran uses their proxies, and they supply upwards of 90% of the budget of Hamas and Hezbollah. Those are things that we know.”
“We know that Iran, the ayatollah, came out and said that getting rid of Israel — I’m paraphrasing, of course — that this was important to their initiatives, and they have said many times that their number one target was Israel,” she added.
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After mentioning Iran’s threat to Israel, Blackburn spoke to the importance of the U.S. re-freezing the $6 billion in Iranian assets.
“It is vitally important, because you do not want attention on this issue to fade and then the U.S. to say, ‘Well, we quietly froze this and delayed it, but now we’re going to open it back up.’”
“And unless we have a formal decision to freeze that money and remove Iran’s ability to get to those dollars, the concern is they will eventually release this $6 billion,” Blackburn said.
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Blackburn proposed that Israel should receive that money as restitution for last week’s attack.
“This is an unprovoked attack.”
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Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.