On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby responded to a question on why Iran is getting sanctions waivers from the Biden administration when it’s funding anti-Israel protests in the U.S. by stating that Iran is funding some protests, but not all of them and added that “we’re working very hard on what we can do to hold them accountable for their destabilizing activities. And you can expect that the president, with the six months that he has remaining in his term, to continue to do that.”
Host Leland Vittert asked, “I heard you, both in the briefing and in other interviews, strongly and vigorously condemn the protests yesterday that we saw during the Prime Minister of Israel’s speech. You spoke, I think, pretty…candidly and emotionally about that. You also said of these protests that are talking about killing the Jews and Hamas is coming and burning American flags that they are funded by Iran, that we can now trace that back. Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to stop these protests and for these protests not to happen if we were not giving sanction waivers to the same Iranian…regime that is funding these protests?”
Kirby responded that Iran is funding some protests, but not all of them.
Vittert then said, “Due respect, and I understand there’s a lot here to unpack, but it doesn’t seem to be working, right? The Iranian-backed Houthis just hit Israel two blocks from the U.S. consulate, they’re funding or at least helping sow discord, in your words, these protests. It may be that you’re doing a lot. I would argue that Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by the Trump administration, might argue that the Trump administration did a lot more.”
Kirby countered, “You can’t look at the evidence and tell me that after Qasem Soleimani was killed that the Iranians just stopped, they threw up their hands and said, well, that’s it. I guess the Americans got us now. They’ve continued, even before this administration, continued striking about on our troops and our facilities after the Qasem Soleimani strike. So, look, we’re working very hard on what we can do to hold them accountable for their destabilizing activities. And you can expect that the president, with the six months that he has remaining in his term, to continue to do that.”
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