Republican Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida blasted President Joe Biden over his foreign policy on Saturday after Iran launched drones toward Israel.
Iran launched unmanned aerial vehicles towards Israel late Saturday, less than two weeks after an Israeli airstrike killed a top officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps in Damascus, Syria. Waltz ripped Biden’s handling of Iran, accusing the president of giving Iran “room to push” with his policy of “de-escalation.”
“There is no other way to describe the Obama-Biden Middle East policy except as a dangerous disaster,” Waltz told Fox News host Jon Scott. “I mean, this is an utter calamity. Just a few years ago, under President Trump, ISIS was destroyed, Iran was broke and on their back foot and we had the Abraham Accords, and look where we are now.”
“I think the fundamental mistake, the fundamental underpinning, has been an appeasement strategy from the Biden Administration that is so focused on what they called de-escalation that it has signaled to the region, and certainly to Iran, that they have room to push, that they can achieve their goals as the Biden administration continues to try to appease and back away and that’s been reinforced,” Waltz continued. “Just last year we refused to push the UN to renew sanctions on Iran’s drone and missile program. Now, they are literally flying towards Israel.”
WATCH:
U.S. officials believe up to 500 drones could be targeting Israel from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran, ABC News reported.
“We have not enforced the oil sanctions, 90% of their oil is being sold to China. We have backed away from our greatest ally, Israel, very publicly,” Waltz said. “And by the way, we spent the last couple of years begging Iran to get back in to an Iran deal using Russia as an intermediary, and the lead negotiator is now under investigation by the FBI for some type of traitorous activity towards Iran … the list is so long that Iran clearly thinks it can get away with this and sees this as an opportunity.”
Waltz then claimed that “November can’t come soon enough” as “we have to have a commander-in-chief that our enemies respect and fear.”
