Young: Following Attacks in Jordan, Congress Should Act

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, released the following statement regarding the attacks in Jordan that killed three U.S. servicemembers:

“This weekend’s attacks are the latest in a long series of provocations against the United States and our partners by the terrorist regime in Iran. Tragically, American servicemembers have now paid the price for inaction. While we mourn the three servicemembers whose lives were lost in this latest attack, we cannot stand idly by and permit Iran to set an agenda that undermines our security and interests in the region.

“As Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Middle East, in addition to an all senators briefing, the Committee must swiftly hold public hearings with senior members of the Biden Administration at the earliest possible date. Hearings are necessary to ensure the best interests of the American people are being represented in our diplomacy and actions in the Middle East and that the Biden Administration has a strategy for restoring deterrence and stopping Iran’s campaign of terror and chaos.

“In addition, Congress has a responsibility to act. Both the Committee and the Senate should quickly take up measures that would restrict Iran’s access to capital, impose costs on Iran’s enablers in China, and directly target the groups responsible for this series of attacks against U.S. servicemembers and diplomats across Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and in the Red Sea.

“These measures are even more necessary after the waiving or ignoring of sanctions by the Biden Administration while pursuing a return to the Iran nuclear agreement, a gross error that has delivered billions into Tehran’s coffers. Many of us warned that these actions would embolden the Iranian regime, but our calls to action were rejected by the Administration time and again.”