By Rep. Barry Moore

As we give thanks for our many blessings this week, I am thinking of the 240 hostages taken by Hamas, and their families praying for them to be released. Those hostages include 33 children and at least nine Americans. The prospect of celebrating holidays without knowing if your loved one is safe is devastating, and it’s disappointing that this horror is partially a product of Biden’s foreign policy failure.

The Biden Administration has fully abandoned President Trump’s maximum pressure policy on Iran in favor of a weak, dangerous strategy that allows Iran to degrade America’s interests. This plan began when Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, killing American jobs and enabling Iran to sell illicit oil for even higher prices.

In early 2021, Biden announced his intent to restart nuclear negotiations with Iran. Around the same time, he also removed all travel restrictions against Iranian “diplomats” and canceled United Nations sanctions against Iran. This gave Iran the ability to legally buy and sell weaponry across the globe without concessions.

Later that year, Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal turned the country over to the Taliban, who sold U.S. weapons over the border into Iran. And on the eve of Putin’s Ukraine invasion in 2022, Biden permitted a $10 billion nuclear deal between Iran and Russia. His weakness only continued in March of that year, when he lifted terror sanctions from Iran’s Central Bank and its oil export industries. This led to Iran having enriched uranium up to 83.7 percent purity for a nuclear weapon in January 2023.

In March 2023, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revealed that Iranian-backed proxies have attacked U.S. forces 83 times since Biden took office. The U.S. has only responded four times. Biden’s weakness continued later in the year when his officials admitted to letting Iran export oil to China without sanctions and paid $6 billion for the release of five U.S. hostages, rewarding Hamas hostage-taking.

Just last week, Biden agreed to release another $10 billion to Iran – the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the entire world. The likelihood that this money will be used to enrich uranium for a nuclear warhead or commit more terrorism against Israel and others is high. Biden’s weak leadership is a slap in the face to all Americans and our allies, especially those in the military who have sacrificed greatly in the war on terror, and a welcomed gift to adversaries.

Heather and I are praying for the hostages, Israeli Defense Forces, and the innocent civilians affected by the barbarism of Hamas. I am proud to stand with Israel and condemn Biden’s incompetence.

If you need help from my office with the VA, IRS, or another federal agency, or if we can help you with a government service like processing a passport request, I hope you will reach out to us. We’ve resolved over 3,700 cases since I took office in 2021. Visit one of my offices in Wetumpka, Dothan, Andalusia, Troy, or Washington, call us at 334-478- 6330, or visit barrymoore.house.gov to learn how we can help.