Ex-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe stated on Sunday that the Biden administration has granted Iran, which purportedly sanctioned the Hamas invasion of Israel on Saturday, far more than $6 billion in favors.
Sunday, Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during the Trump administration, appeared on Fox News.
President Joe Biden was criticized over the weekend for a controversial hostage exchange in which the United States gave Iran $6 billion and five prisoners in exchange for five American hostages held by Iran.
Ratcliffe stated that the “real problem” in the Middle East foreign policy of the Biden administration is the perceived “daylight” between the United States and Israel.
“Look, it’s not even just this $6 billion, which clearly is going to further enrich Iran. It’s closer to $60 billion. If you look at what the Biden administration has done to help this Islamic terrorist regime in Iran by [stopping enforcement of] sanctions, by lifting restrictions, by allowing Iranian oil to increase by 650% over the last year from 400,000 barrels of oil a day to 3 million barrels of oil a day – all of this has strengthened the Iranian regime” he said.
Ratcliffe also stated that the real problem in the Middle East foreign policy of the Biden administration is the perceived distance between the United States and Israel.
“The relationship has changed in the last two years. The Biden administration wouldn’t even meet with the Israeli prime minister, but at the same time they were courting, at times begging, this Iranian regime to do everything from restarting nuclear talks to engaging in these kinds of, ultimately, ransom payments.” he continued.
“Ultimately, everyone sees that in the Middle East, and that is really what is playing out here before us right now,” he added.
[READ MORE: Trump Predicts Ron DeSantis Will Soon be Forced to Drop out of Presidential Race]
