Ron DeSantis called for the destruction of Iran’s economy after two Iranian-controlled locations in eastern Syria were hit by US airstrikes in the early hours of Friday in retaliation for a wave of attacks on US bases in Syria and Iraq.
‘You are tightening all the financial screws on Iran. You know, our goal should be the destruction of the Iranian economy,” the Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate told an audience at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC.
“If you do that, they won’t be able to finance Hezbollah and Hamas and they won’t be able to help Russia,” he argued.
DeSantis gave what his campaign billed as a major foreign policy speech. In his remarks, he railed against President Joe Biden, claiming that “Biden’s foreign policy is rudderlessly weak, misguided and concerned about America’s adversaries.”
Ron DeSantis delivered a major foreign policy speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC on Friday
Florida’s governor blasted the president for not doing enough to counter China’s influence in the Indo-specific region, accusing Biden of enriching and empowering Iran “with sanctions relief that fueled Hamas attacks that have fueled what Russia is doing in Europe’.
“Biden has deliberately enriched them. And it has had disastrous consequences,” he said of Iran.
Some conservatives accuse the Biden administration of enriching Iran by sanctioning $10 billion frozen in Iraq and allowing the money to be deposited into Iranian bank accounts in Oman.
The Biden administration says it has taken economic measures to stop Iran’s influence and reach.
“We have never been blind to Iran’s destabilizing behavior and the threats it has posed in the region since taking office,” White House spokesman John Kirby said earlier this week.
“That’s why we’ve added additional sanctions regimes – forty of them since we came to power, and thirty in the last year alone. That is why we have strengthened our military presence in the region.”
He added that “we are not blind to the fact that they continue to support groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as these militias in Iraq and Syria who have recently, over the course of this past weekend, attacked some of our facilities and our buildings attacked. both troops and our diplomats.’
In the early morning hours of Friday, the Pentagon sent two F-16 fighter jets to attack a weapons depot and munitions factory near Abu Kamal.
Both sites were controlled by Iran‘s Revolutionary Guard, the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon said the attacks were not related to the war between Israel and Hamas but were aimed at warning Iran not to take advantage of the regional unrest.
“These attacks were largely done in self-defense. As you know, our forces and facilities have been subject to a series of attacks, missile attacks, largely by these proxy groups, but they are backed by Iran, in Iraq and in Syria,” Kirby told ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday morning.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said at the United Nations on Thursday that if Israel’s offensive against Hamas does not end, the United States “will not be spared from this fire.”
There were no reports of casualties in the 4:30 a.m. strike, and a U.S. official told Voice of America’s Jeff Seldin that the locations were chosen because no civilians were present.
It is the first time since March that the Biden administration has authorized strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria and Iraq, following a series of strikes that began on October 17.
The attacks on multiple US-controlled locations in the region resulted in minor injuries to 21 US service members and the death of a US contractor, who died of a heart attack during one attack.
America strikes back: US warplanes carry out airstrikes on Iranian proxy forces in Syria in retaliation for attacks on US forces in the Middle East
The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, and another 900 in neighboring Syria.
The U.S. personnel are there to advise and assist local forces in the fight against Islamic State, which seized parts of territory in both countries in 2014.
On Tuesday, an Iranian proxy group in Iraq said it would expand attacks on US bases in the region.
President Biden on Wednesday warned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against attacking US forces in the region, saying there would be consequences.
“My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continue to turn against those forces, we will respond,” Biden said.