‘World is on fire, America needs strong leadership’: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley takes aim at Biden

Washington, DC [US]: Taking a jibe at US President Joe Biden, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has said that the world is currently on fire, and America needs a new, strong leadership to deal with it.

She said that this situation would not even come if Joe Biden had not been so weak in Afghanistan, so slow in Ukraine, and so absent from the border.

On X, Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former US ambassador to the United Nations wrote, “The shame of it all is that we wouldn’t be in this terrible position if Joe Biden hadn’t been so weak in Afghanistan, so slow in Ukraine, so pandering to Iran, and so absent from the border.”

“The world is on fire, and America needs strong new leadership to deal with it,” she said.

Haley had earlier slammed Secretary of State Antony Blinken, labelling his comments as “irresponsible.”

This follows Blinken’s statement asserting there was no connection between the recent Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the release of USD 6 billion in frozen funds to Iran as part of a prisoner swap deal, Fox News reported.

Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former US ambassador to the United Nations shared her views during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” She responded to Blinken’s earlier remarks, where he suggested that the USD 6 billion could not have contributed to terrorism and mentioned that the US had not seen evidence of Iran’s support for the attack.

Haley criticised Blinken’s statement, saying, “I actually think it was irresponsible for Secretary Blinken to say that the USD 6 billion doesn’t weigh in here. I mean, let’s be honest with the American people and understand that Hamas knows and Iran knows they’re moving money around as we speak because they know USD 6 billion is going to be released. That’s the reality,” according to Fox News, an American multinational news and political website.

Blinken had previously responded to Republican criticisms of the deal made by Joe Biden’s administration with Iran, which involved unfreezing USD 6 billion in funds in exchange for five US prisoners held in Iran.

Blinken emphasised that the funds from that account could only be used for specific purposes like medical supplies, food, and medicine. “It’s very unfortunate that some are playing politics at a time when so many lives have been lost and Israel remains under attack,” Blinken said.

Haley argued that it was naive to assume the funds couldn’t be repurposed for other uses. She said, “To think that they’re not moving money around is irresponsible. They hate Israel. They hate America. They are going to continue to use this. It was wrong to release the USD 6 billion.”

The recent Hamas attacks have resulted in the deaths of at least 600 Israelis and the injury of over 2,000 others, as Israel and Hamas fighters continue to engage in conflict, as reported by Fox News.

Haley also criticised the Biden administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly citing the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the waiver of sanctions on Iran, which provided Iran with additional funds. She asserted that when Iran receives money, they utilise it for hostile purposes.

Indian American leader Nikki Haley announced her candidacy for the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination in February this year.

While announcing her decision, Nikki Haley called for new leadership in the party that she admitted had repeatedly failed to grab the popular vote in the presidential elections.

A former president of the National Association of Women Business Owners, she was first elected to the South Carolina House in 2004. Six years later, she became the first woman elected as governor of the state in 2010 and was the youngest governor in the nation when she took office in 2011.

She resigned in the middle of her second term to become Trump’s ambassador to the UN – a role she served in until the end of 2018, according to CNN.

Haley began her political career as a state representative. She was elected the Governor of a staunch republican state South Carolina, by a very small margin of 51 per cent to 47 per cent. However, she went on to triple her margin during her re-election in 2014.