Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is leading a group of nine Republican senators calling on President Biden to convene the nations of the Group of Seven (G7) to jointly sanction Iran after attacks by Iran-backed Hamas militants killed more than 1,000 people in Israel.
“We know that the Iranian regime is behind the brutal attacks on innocent civilians being carried out by terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Jihad. The United States and our allies cannot ignore this reality for a second longer,” they wrote.
The GOP senators said they appreciate the statements of support for Israel from leaders in France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, but they said it doesn’t go far enough.
“The statement failed to direct any action toward the evil behind these attacks: Iran,” they wrote.
The lawmakers urged coordinated action between Western allies to impose “severe sanctions” in response to the attacks they said threaten Israel’s “very existence.”
“We the undersigned senators urge you to immediately convene the G7 nations and take coordinated action to further isolate Iran with severe sanctions and action that will strike directly at the wealth that this evil brings to the Ayatollah and the Iranian mullahs,” they wrote.
The other signatories include Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.).
The members of the G7 last held a summit in Hiroshima, Japan, in May, where they discussed new sanctions and export controls on Russia and economic security and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific related to China.
Now Scott and his colleagues want to put Israel’s security and the regional threat posed by Iran at the forefront of the G7 agenda.
“Iran is not a normal country. It is not a negotiating partner nor does it pretend to follow the rules based order of the civilized world. Every dollar within the grasp and control of the Iranian regime is used to fund terrorism and fuel its power. That is why we must isolate Iran and cut it off economically,” they wrote.
The members of the G7 are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.