Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chris Eddy and Polaris National Security Executive Director Gabriel Noronha told Newsmax on Thursday that the Biden administration needs "to stop funding Iran" and a step in the right direction would be to hit the rogue nation with meaningful sanctions.
During an appearance on Newsmax's "American Agenda," Eddy pushed back against former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's comments to CNN that former President Donald Trump is to blame for Iran's strong position.
"It's typical career politician looking to shift the blame," Eddy said.
"In reality, the Obama administration … provided billions of dollars in cash to Iran, as well as access to liquid capital. And since this administration came into power, they've also given them tens of billions of dollars of sanctions relief.
"That money doesn't go to buy baby formula and diapers; it goes to beef up its own military, and obviously, those of its proxies as well. The U.S. has to quit funding Iran, especially as they're lobbing missiles into our ally Israel."
Though it "should have been done years ago," Noronha said that the first thing Biden could do "is reverse the damage" he initially did.
"The very first act that Biden did on Iran when he came into office was to lift the U.N. sanctions on Iran," Noronha said. "So, just last October, the U.N. missile sanctions on Iran's ballistic missiles all expired.
"Biden has single-handedly allowed Iran to be able to acquire, export, develop ballistic missiles with impunity, so the very first thing he could do is just reverse the first move he did. And that would be a good first start. But we've already been told that's probably not going to happen and so we're going to see symbolic sanctions that don't move the needle in terms of bankrupting Iran. And we're going to see another strongly-worded statement.
"That's not the approach. It's not going to fix anything."
Eddy agreed with Noronha's assessment that sanctions for Tehran should have come years ago.
"They tend to trust Iran more than they do our own allies," Eddy said of the White House. "It's just naive to think that they're [Iran] not going to develop nuclear weapons and attack. They've already stated what their intentions are. We need to stop funding Iran."
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Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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