Scott Powers
In a flurry of foreign policy statements Thursday, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio blasted the administration for allegedly lying about the cash-for-hostages Iran deal, and called for the U.S. to cut humanitarian support for Palestinians.
A statement from Rubio’s re-election campaign also called out Rubio’s most-likely Democratic challenger in the November election, U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, for supporting President Barack Obama and for being largely silent on the Iran deal.
Rubio’s Iran-deal statements came after the U.S. State Department acknowledged Thursday that its $400 million cash delivery to Iran early this year was contingent on the release of American hostages.
“This administration has peddled one outright lie after another as it attempts to defend its disastrous nuclear deal with Iran,” Rubio said in one statement.
“President Obama violated longstanding U.S. policy, overrode the objections of senior Justice Department officials, and delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism in exchange for the release of Americans it was holding hostage,” Rubio charged.
In another statement, Rubio’s campaign spokesman Michael Ahrens declared, “Patrick Murphy has consistently stood in lockstep with President Obama’s failed foreign policy, including his dangerous nuclear deal with Iran. Now that the State Department has admitted that the Obama administration paid ransom for hostages, Patrick Murphy owes Floridians a more than one-word answer on why he continues to support this disastrous deal.”
Murphy and his campaign were not immediately available to respond.
Rubio’s flurry of criticism of Obama’s Middle East policies also turned to Palestine, where Rubio called for the administration to suspend humanitarian assistance to people in the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip territory bordering Israel.
Rubio sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Gayle Smith, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, responding to reports that some American humanitarian aid money was reaching Hamas.
Rubio cited reports that Israel arrested and charged employees from World Vision and the United Nations Development Program for providing providing support to Hamas, and that Hamas officials had infiltrated numerous aid organizations.
Rubio urged Kerry and Smith to investigate the reports and stop American aid money headed to Gaza until safeguards could be assured.
“Hamas is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, including numerous Americans,” Rubio wrote in the letter. “The American people deserve to have strong assurances by their government that U.S. taxpayer dollars and private donations to groups doing work overseas are actually achieving their intended purpose to help those in need.”
