On Saturday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) called on Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to pass the SHIP Act, which the House passed on a bipartisan basis in November, to crack down on Iranian oil revenues.
Lawler said, “As we’ve seen China, Russia, and Iran have been working together in an unholy alliance to destabilize and undermine the United States, Israel, and the free world. When you look at what is going on right now in the Middle East, Iran is the greatest state sponsor of terror. They have funded Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terrorist organizations as their proxies in their war against Israel. They want to eradicate the State of Israel off the face of the earth, and, obviously, with this direct attack tonight, we see that they are finally putting their own missiles and rockets and drones behind this effort, and that is deeply alarming.”
He continued, “It’s why I have fought to get at Iran’s funding by putting secondary sanctions in place on the purchase of Iranian petroleum, which is how they are funding so much of their war against Israel. The biggest purchaser of Iranian petroleum is China. It’s why we passed the SHIP Act through the House in November. And I’m calling on Sen. Schumer to pass this through the Senate immediately. We have to crack down on their funding source, $88 billion in increased Iranian petroleum sales since Joe Biden took office, because they have weakened the sanctions against Iran. We have to crack down on this. So, I am deeply concerned about how this entire situation could explode and how Israel is going to defend itself on multiple fronts.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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