Washington: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley criticised Muslim countries for their failure to provide refuge to civilians from Gaza amidst the looming threat of an Israeli ground invasion.
She further directed her criticism at former US President Barack Obama and the current President Joe Biden, blaming them for the Iranian nuclear deal and accusing Tehran of bolstering Hamas and Hezbollah.
“We should care about the Palestinian citizens, especially the innocent ones, because they didn’t ask for this. But where are the Arab countries? Where are they? Where is Qatar? Where is Lebanon? Where is Jordan? Where is Egypt? Do you know we give Egypt over a billion dollars a year? Why aren’t they opening the gates? Why aren’t they taking the Palestinians?” Haley told CNN in an interview.
“You know why? Because they know they can’t vet them, and they don’t want Hamas in their neighbourhood. So why would Israel want them in their neighbourhood? So let’s be honest with what’s going on. The Arab countries aren’t doing anything to help the Palestinians because they don’t trust who is right, who is good, who is evil, and they don’t want it in their country,” she said.
Haley anticipated that these Islamic countries would blame America, as reported by PTI.
“They’re going to come and blame America. They’re going to come and blame Israel. And don’t fall for it, because they have the ability to fix all of this if they wanted to. They have the ability to go in and tell Hamas right now to stop what they’re doing. They have the ability to tell Hamas to let those people out,” Haley said.
“But you know what? Qatar is going to continue to work with Hamas and their leadership. Iran is going to continue to fund all of this and not say anything. And who’s silent? Every one of those Arab countries are going to be silent. But expect for the finger to point to Israel, and the finger is going to point to America,” she said.
Meanwhile, authorities in Gaza said Israeli air strikes killed more than 2,300 people, a quarter of them children, with nearly 10,000 wounded so far. Hospitals are running short of supplies and struggling to cope with growing numbers of wounded.
