President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, faced new scrutiny on social media this weekend for a 2023 comment in which he claimed the Middle East was “calm” after Iran launched the first direct attack against Israel.
“What we said is [we] we want to depressurize, de-escalate and ultimately integrate the Middle East region,” Sullivan said at The Atlantic Festival on September 29.
“The war in Yemen is in its 19th month of truce. For now, Iranian attacks on American forces have ceased. Our presence in Iraq is stable. I emphasize for now because all that can change and the Middle East region is today calmer than it has been in two decades,” he added.
Since that comment was made, Hamas launched a deadly terrorist attack against Israel killing more than 1,000 people, and over the weekend, Iran launched its first direct attack against Israel in the form of hundreds of drones and missiles.
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National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (AP Photo/Susan Walsh/Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Sullivan’s comment drew strong criticism from social media users.
“This is who runs Biden’s foreign policy,” the Republican National Committee published in X.
“It’s hard to believe, but this was 6 months ago,” Charles Lister, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. published in X.
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attends a meeting with a group of students in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday, November 1. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
“Jake Sullivan has been linked to some of our biggest disasters abroad, including Benghazi,” journalist Sharyl Attkisson. published in X. “Who knows why he keeps reaching high positions by making more mistakes.”
“Biden Administration: Full of Liars!” Leo Terrell, Fox News contributor published in X.
Tony Schaffer, former US Army Reserve lieutenant, author and commentator published in X that Sullivan is an “extraordinary moron” who is promoting a “utopian fantasy.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the National Security Council for comment but did not receive a response.
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Sullivan has been at the center of several controversies in recent years, many of which have been raised by conservatives on social media in light of his comments on the Middle East, including the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In the days following the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Sullivan and the State Department They were criticized for not being able to say exactly how many Americans had been left behind.
In 2021, the top Republican watchdog in Congress requested the removal Sullivan from his position because of his position at the “epicenter” of failed foreign policy decisions over the past 10 years, including the Benghazi terrorist attack that killed three U.S. contractors and a U.S. ambassador.
Jake Sullivan, President-elect Biden’s national security adviser nominee, speaks at The Queen Theater, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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Sullivan served as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff and political advisor at the State Department during the 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya.
“From Benghazi to the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Jake Sullivan has been at the epicenter of the worst crises and foreign policy decisions of the last decade,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Ranking Member Rep. James Comer, Republican of Kentucky. ., told Fox News Digital at the time. “Given this administration’s tendency to create self-inflicted crises, it is no surprise that Jake Sullivan has been given a senior role in the Biden White House.”
