Ambassador uh Jacobson uh you previously served in Tajikistan yes sir uh what period of time I was there from 2006 to 2009 um I'm sure you've seen the news that broke this week about eight tajiks who came to this country illegally over the southern border were apprehended by the Biden Administration yes sir were quote unquote vetted and then were released and they've been arrested this week because of their affiliations with Isis k and over concerns that they were plotting a major terror attack in the United States uh in your experience how D how dangerous is Isis K Isis K remains a threat uh both in the region to which I've been nominated and into the world and also to our homeland and I um if confirmed would sort of uh welcome the opportunity to further discuss how we can combat this sort of terrorist threat I'm a little bit um out of the loop on Tajikistan in particular having left there 15 years ago but of course I still do follow it how concern should Americans be that this Administration released 80 illegal aliens who are tajiks with connections to Isis K I am not privy to the intelligence or the law enforcement activity or um or really any of that I have mostly read about this in the news um but I certainly think it's incumbent on all of us all the agencies of of the US government to protect our homeland and I this is this is the same terrorist group that murdered 145 people in Moscow at the Opera House came in with automatic weapons and mowed down civilians is that is that right uh it's my understanding that yes there were tajic involved in that operation in Moscow well I I I will say I can tell you Texans are deeply concerned that the administration keeps releasing illegal immigrants with ties to terrorists and we are living on borrowed time I believe we there is a higher likelihood today of a major terrorist attack in the United States and there has been any time since September 11th and this administration's open border with 11 million illegal immigrants coming across it is an invitation for terrorists for Hamas for Hezbollah for Palestinian Islamic Jihad and for Isis K to come and murder Americans and it is utterly indefensible and yet today the Biden Administration is releasing yet more illegal immigrants into this country they do day after day after day and and we are going to see a lot more dead bodies as a result of it all right let's shift topics a few weeks ago secretary blinkin appeared before this committee and I questioned him about policy decisions made by the Biden Administration which have allowed a hundred billion to flow to Iran including access to a 10 billion pot of money invol involving Iraqi electricity in euros and Dinars this money enabled the Ayatollah to fund Hamas and Hezbollah this money funded the October 7th terrorist attack the single worst one-day Massacre of Jews since the Holocaust it is right now funding hezbollah's push to trigger a Regional Middle East War all the way through this morning miss gavito you served for two years as Deputy assistant secretary for Iran Iraq and public diplomacy then you became the acting principal Deputy assistant secretary for ner Eastern Affairs what was your role in issuing the waivers giving Iran access to that pot of money thank you very much Senator uh with regard to the uh $6 billion dollar in question that the the 10 billion not the not the six billion in Ransom that's another problematic decision apologies apologies um with regard to the electricity waivers um I as deputy assistant secretary did not have a direct role uh in that particular decision that being said um certainly uh was was part of those discussions as Ambassador Jacobson has noted the the intent behind those waivers was to incentivize the Iraqi government I'm not asking about the intent did you support those waivers I was not in a decision-making capacity there did you agree with the decision I would have to review Senator yes I I believe that incentivizing Iraq to devest itself of Iranian oil is positive okay Ambassador Jacobson these waivers will have to be renewed this summer or they expire if confirmed would you support reissuing those waivers so I note that those uh waivers have uh spanned at least two administrations and been renewed uh 21 times since 2018 if I'm not mistaken uh I take heart from the commitment of the government of Iraq to achieve energy independence by 2030 that's not an answer to the question would you support reissuing those waivers well I don't think it would be up to me and I would be uh more than interested in serving as part of the conversation there is a consistent pattern in this administration of giving money to Theocratic lunatics who want to murder us a hundred billion to the ayatolla com is the single most catastrophic foreign policy decision of this Administration and today this Administration continues to refuse to enforce the oil sanctions enriching the Ayatollah funding Hamas funding Hezbollah funding those who are murdering Israelis and and trying to murder Americans how does it make sense to give billions and billions of dollars to Theocratic lunatics who want to kill us thank you for that question Senator I personally am very cleare eyed about the Iranian threat I think I shared with you and I'll share with others uh that I have been myself on the receiving end of Iranian death threat information including during my time in ashkabad when President naaza used to remind me that the Iranians had a missile pointed at my bedroom uh with regards to the funds uh that are kept in restricted accounts uh that are overseen by the treasury Department that are uh the subject of a an extensive system of safeguards these funds will never reach the government of Iran These funds have to stay overseas and they have to be used for humanitarian purposes uh you could ask uh doesn't that mean that it frees up money for their uh massive terrorism campaigns uh which of course are heinous and I would argue that uh Iran unfortunately is always going to focus on destabilizing activity over supporting the humanitarian needs of its own people with regards to the sanctions uh the administration hasn't lifted any sanctions and as far as I know it's implemented another 700 sanctions but it refuses to enforce my my times's expired but but the results are indisputable and Iran has gone from selling 200 300,000 barrels a day of oil to selling 2 million barrels of oil a day that is funding this this war of Terror against us thank you very much Senator Cruz thank you all for your testimony uh today we really appreciate your oh Senator Booker it's been a painful rivalry between Connecticut and New Jersey for a very long time You Are Not Invisible I swear You Are Not Invisible to Senator Booker we don't ABD each other but we are the tri-state area um I appreciate uh the recognition Mr chairman and I I I just want to say to everybody assembled here um je Factor youve been sitting here before us uh reflects this commitment to Country and Service uh that should be applauded uh all of you have careers uh that evidence uh to me the deepest uh symbol of patriotism which is uh the willingness to make sacrifices for your nation for the greater good and I add to that the fact that you are lovers of humanity and each of you have shown a commitment to uh wanting to make this World a a better place and recognize America's extraordinary role in it if I may uh I want to uh really focus in on uh questions for Peter Lord and uh I'm fascinated about senal senagal right now uh with the election of a very young uh leader that seems to belly what's going on in that region uh uh with bino Faso and moli and nier uh this election this sort of transfer of power and democracy y uh is a really hopeful sign and it was talked about in fact when I was in Chad I I was talking uh about it with their autocratic leader as an example of new Young leadership uh coming up and I'm wondering in general how has Sagal sort of avoided this trend in in in the SEL region uh what can we learn from their experiences and how can we reinforce really uh some of the promises of this uh uh new leader uh and promising development elsewhere in the thank you senator for that question uh indeed it is a hopeful sign for the West African region which uh as you noted has experienced a number of coups I would say um most of those coups and a lot of the instability is related to weak governance and that has not been the case in Sagal um since its independence in 1960 it's uh National budget spend has been focused on education and health um we as the US government have uh partnered in that and so they've had a a deep tradition of focing focusing on citizen responsive governance and I think what we are seeing today through Democratic elections um that went well and institutions that reinforced um those democratic values of the sagala people is because of those long-term Investments over time um we have been a partner in that and if confirmed uh those are Partnerships that I look to continue so that we can uh work to show that democracy does deliver a dividend and attract other states in the region to it as well as work with Sagal on security and diplomacy um through the regional organizations to hopefully restore Democratic governance in those countries I I love how you put that right I mean I was just talking about this in regards to Kenya with all the back Democratic backsliding countries that are are showing a greater commitment to uh democratic ideals and principles there should be a dividend we should should uh uh Step Up in some way um you know senagal is has maintained relationships with Israel even though I know they're they're straining but a Muslim majority country we're one of our they're one of our significant Partners we already have the MCC uh their investments from uh obviously on on health initiatives and more I I'm just wondering what what what are ways and I know the president's actually uh recommending a greater investment in the country but I'm wondering if could for this committee uh which does have some people overlapping with Appropriations as well what are some things that we should be thinking about in terms of showing in a in a very uh uh uh strong way Investments uh that can show and reward them for continuing to do what I believe is the right uh to have the right Trends uh thank you again for for your support and for that question um I think we need to continue to invest in democracy and uh the the Count's uh initiatives in democracy so increasing our spend there uh to reinforce the institutions but also to demonstrate that local government uh local governments uh deliver governments that are the closest to the people in their needs um continuing with our education and health support and I understand that the Millennium challenge Corporation is in development of a regional compact that uh focuses on Blue economy and so working on Blue economy and uh employment particularly for the extreme large youth population in Sagal will be those are priorities for the new Administration and I think those are uh Investments worth our energy our time and our dollars in order to yield the sorts of development what are some of your concerns I'm just uh going because I really want to try to get a question for Miss Cavo um really quickly just their relationships with Russia their relationships with China are these red flags in general how what's your strategy there uh they have diplomatic relations with both um with China is engaged very heavily um economically um but you know fundamentally we continue to have the comparative advantage because both the United States and Sagal believe in democratic values and that will continue to Trump um all the way uh in terms of our relationship and our comparative advantage in engaging um most of the new administration's policies are very much in line with things that we want to see transparency job creation Focus in on people's uh basic needs those are all Democratic pieces we'll of course have to continue to be very Innovative in using our economic tools to support increased us investment such as through the DFC I would also say um as a cover would cover if confirmed guine basau as well um that we need a larger presence there that Russia and China are engaging more and have presences there and that is important for us to increase our engagement and presence there I hope to be supportive in that and and future visits with the with the uh Indulgence of the chair I'm I'm going over not as much as Ted Cruz um but uh uh uh but uh we'll see you haven't finished yet that's true that's true this real quick I'm I'm about to jump into the region uh I I'll be in in Greece but one of the things I'm going to be looking at is just the migration crisis in the region could you just give me a really quick perspective help educate uh a senator from New Jersey about um the the migration issues relating from Libya and and what we could be doing doing to help uh what is a crisis globally we're seeing it at our borders of of global migration the the weaponization of human migration uh and suffering is horrific in Libya which currently uh houses approximately 700,000 uh Asylum Seekers refugees uh and uh and other migrants because of the uh to protect the human rights of these individuals uh the situation is is exacerbated uh State and non-state actors are responsible for much of of what we see additionally uh we are working with the International Community the international organizations uh like I to try to provide the libyans with the the tools that they need to better a uh secure their borders and reassert their sovereignty but also Al to be in a better position to hold accountable individuals for protection of the human rights of these people um the migration flows as you note are increasing uh 700,000 as I understand it uh across the Mediterranean last year uh so the situation is not getting better this speaks again uh across the Sahel to the importance of accountable governance Justice and uh providing countries that the United States work with like Libya with the tools that they need to protect their citizens uh protect migrants on site uh so that people don't take those those horrifically dangerous Journeys I appreciate it I'm now in uh Cruz territory so um uh I I look forward to continuing this conversation I just want to do a question for the record because there's two staffers behind one of these uh future ambassadors that look very young I'm I just want to say for the record I am against child labor um and when I find out who those two very youngl looking staffers are working for uh I will uh uh reconsider my my affirmative vote um so thank you very much Mr chairman uh thank you very much Senator Booker yeah five very impressive performances but the two most impressive performances are the two young men sitting behind you Mr Harris um so thank you all a reminder um a reminder of of how this is a family commitment serving the United States of America and we thank you all for your deep commitment and love for this country we thank you for what your your family and friend networks will do Ambassador Jacobson thanks for inspiring us and reminding us that we owe a deep Deb of gratitude to everybody who serves regardless of whether they ever sit in these seats and appear before this committee um we are going to keep uh the record open until the close of business tomorrow so uh we'll ask you to respond to any questions that get submitted um by 5:00 tomorrow and with thanks to the committee this hearing is now adjourned