Washington DC, United States: The Middle East conflict has turned into a domestic political dispute in Washington by the US party leaders. The senior Republicans have criticized President Joe Biden for his participation in the conflict. They have stated that his participation poses the risk of border clashes.
It has been noted that this active participation of the Biden administration could test him at the national and international level. According to the reports by AP, he could be tested if he tries to interfere in the war, extend his support for Israel.
Following this, the US Secretary of State – Antony Blinken, criticized the Republicans for molding such a heartbreaking situation for their own political benefits. During CNN’s State of the Union, Blinken stated, “It’s deeply unfortunate that some are playing politics when so many lives have been lost and Israel remains under attack.”
According to various reports, thousands have been killed on both sides during the conflict and among this, the United States was trying to determine whether Americans were the ones who lost their lives during the war.
This report is likely to inflame this debate between Republican leaders and the Biden administration. It is to be noted that many of the presidential candidates have partially blamed President Biden for the Israel-Hamas conflict. According to the leaders, Biden must be blamed for appeasing Iran through the recent deal – involving the return of five detained Americans in exchange for US$ 6 billion in frozen Iranian funds for humanitarian use.
However, on Sunday, Blinken stated that not a single penny out of US$ 6 billion had been liquidated. He was quoted saying, “Not a single dollar has been spent from that account. The account is closely regulated by the US treasury department, so it can only be used for things like food, medicine, medical equipment – that’s what this is about.”
For now, Tim Scott has accused Biden of his interference in the Hamas attack. Scott is the Republican senator from South Carolina and is vying for the presidential nomination for the party.
He took to his official social media and wrote, “Biden’s weakness invited the attack; Biden’s negotiation funded the attack.”
In addition to this, Nikki Haley also came forward and blamed US President Biden. She noted, “Hamas knows, and Iran knows, they’re moving money around as we speak because they know $6bn is going to be released. That’s the reality.”
Republicans blamed each other over the Israel-Hamas conflict:
The blame game was not just limited to cross-party wrangling, and top Republicans also attacked each other over the crisis. Mike Pence – the former vice-president and presidential hopeful, has attacked his former running mate Trump, as well as other two rivals in the Republican presidential contest.
Pence had a conversation at CNN’s State of the Union and pointed out his fingers at the former US President. He was quoted saying, “This is what happens when we have leading voices like Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis signaling a retreat from America’s role as leader of the free world. What happened in Ukraine was an unprovoked invasion by Russia; what happened this weekend was an unprovoked invasion by Hamas into Israel.”
Other presidential candidates have also lambasted each other at such a critical moment. One such candidate, the former governor of New Jersey – Chris Christie, during this interaction in ABC’s This Week, said, “The actions taken by some members of my party were wholly irresponsible without this going on; they’re now putting an even brighter light on the irresponsibility of not having someone in place.”
According to reports by CNN, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee – Michael McCaul, also criticized the absence of the leadership. He stated, “It wasn’t my idea to out the speaker.” Emphasizing the absence of the House Speaker, he furthermore mentioned, “I thought it was dangerous. What kind of message are we sending to our adversaries when we can’t govern when we are dysfunctional, when we don’t even have a speaker of the House. That’s a terrible message.”