The fresh sanctions slapped on Iran's petroleum industry last week by the Biden administration in retaliation for Tehran's massive missile attack on Israel came "too late," former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz said Monday on Newsmax.
"Iran has not been subject to American sanctions, the major sanctions, the oil sanctions, since Biden came into office. Iran is $100 billion richer today than when [Donald] Trump left office because of this," Fleitz said on "Newsline."
"And where did that money go? They used it towards their missile program, their nuclear program, Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels, and they paid for the Hamas terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023. If it was not for Joe Biden and his incompetent foreign policy, Iran would be basically broke, and Hamas would not have had the money to plan that horrendous massacre."
The links between the Hamas terrorist attack and Iran will "become much more pronounced," said Fleitz.
"We're seeing now that Iranians are claiming that they didn't know the attack was going to take place," he said. "It sounds like they knew Hamas was doing something. They funded Hamas to do something, maybe Iranian officials didn't know the date. I think they did. I think they gave a green light for the attack, and The Wall Street Journal has said that."
Fleitz said the situation will worsen if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidency.
"The problem here has been a deterioration of American deterrence, not just in the Middle East, but with Russia, with China, and its why the world is so much more unstable and dangerous today," Fleitz said. "It's going to get worse if Harris is in office.
"Trump will restore maximum pressure against Iran. I think a credible, strong president with a strong national security, we can put Iran back in its box."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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