Ahead of Oct. 7, Ernst Calls for a Return to American Leadership

Press Release

We know that during Trump’s administration, the Abraham Accords provided that peace and stability in the Middle East. We can return to that once again, but we have to have American leadership – leadership that is willing to be involved, to broker peace deals. And that's exactly what President Trump did.

I was just recently in the Middle East, my fourth trip since last October 7th, and spoke directly to MBS. He did state that it wasn't a matter of if this deal happens, but when it happens. Now, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of course wants to see peace. They want to see a solution in Israel, but they are determined to normalize those relations with Israel because once they do that, there will be greater security in that region.

All of these Arab partners in the Middle East, those partners with Israel and the Abraham Accords, they all see Iran as the great threat to their prosperity, so they all want to come together. The Kingdom wants to be involved in this as well, and I think Iran has pushed them much, much closer to Israel. We hope that they are successful in getting this deal done with the assistance of the United States of America.

Iran is a threat to [Israel’s] right to exist. The door has been thrown wide open by Iran with their backing of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Islamic Palestinian Jihad. You see this, of course, with their direct attacks now, two direct attacks in this current administration, which has never, ever happened before in Israel's short life span. We know they need to be able to push back.

Whether striking their oilfields or most certainly going after their nuclear infrastructure, I believe they have every right to do that, and I do believe the United States should enable them however we can, in what means we can, so that Israel will forever remain a nation in safety and security.

When we send so much humanitarian aid to other nations that we're not able to provide for the humanitarian needs of our own citizens, this is a big issue. Our taxpayers work very, very hard. We need to take care of America first.”

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