Rand Paul
“The First Amendment, the Constitution, the Supreme Court, ruled that you can say terrible things,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said in opposing the legislation.
They aim for a policy that “completely blocks Iran’s path to a nuclear-weapons capability, constrains Iran’s ballistic-missile program and confronts Iran’s support for terrorism.”
Boris Zilberman, director of public policy and strategy at the CUFI Action Fund, said that the way things are in Congress at the moment, it may be risky to pin all hopes on an omnibus spending bill passing because such agreement may not be reachable.
“I want Israel strong enough so it does not have to rely on American support,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), before offering an amendment that would take $1 billion from $6 billion in aid for rebuilding Afghanistan and deposit the rest in the U.S. Treasury.
Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also claimed that the United States is isolated and cannot form a military coalition.
“Rand is a friend of mine, and Rand asked me if he could get involved,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House. “I have many people involved, and Iran is going to work out very nicely.”
“This bipartisan legislation authorizes full funding of security assistance to ensure Israel has the means to defend itself,” AIPAC posted on Facebook with a link to “urge Sen. [Rand] Paul to stop blocking aid to Israel.”
