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Senior US Republican calls floating pier off Gaza a ‘national embarrassment

Commenting on the closure of the $230m aid pier, Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the US Senate Armed Services Committee, was sharply critical of President Joe Biden.

  • “This chapter might be over in President Biden’s mind, but the national embarrassment that this project has caused is not,” Wicker said. “The only miracle is that this doomed-from-the-start operation did not cost any American lives.”

  • “I have been calling for an end to the election-year gimmick since its primetime inception at the State of the Union,” Wicker added.
  • “While I am glad it has finally concluded, we cannot buy back the $230m needlessly spent, and significant questions remain about the Biden administration’s poor planning for this mission.”

Republicans have criticised the pier as a waste of money, and Wicker said the money could have been used on counter-drone interceptors to protect US troops in Iraq and Syria.

The senator avoided any Israeli responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and instead has sought to pin the blame on Hamas.

The United Nations and international aid organisations are demanding that Israel allow more access for aid, warning of starvation in the Palestinian enclave.

Source: Al Jazeera