The Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has lashed out at China, Russia and Iran for threatening U.S. national security interests in Africa in exclusive comments to Fox News Digital.

In a wide-ranging interview, Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, discussed the Trump administration’s approach to Africa, highlighting terrorism, war and concerns over trade on the continent. Risch emphasized the importance of Africa to the U.S. 

‘The economic opportunities in Africa cannot be understated, and the United States needs to have a seat at the table regarding trade and investment in the region,’ he said. ‘At the same time, there are serious national security challenges we need to address head on to include terrorism, widespread conflicts affecting regional stability, migration and trafficking.’

Russia, China and Iran have been criticized by Risch as being ‘malign actors’ in Africa, accused of military interventions, exploitative trade practices, and in Iran’s case, reported to be working on an agreement to extract refined ‘yellowcake’ uranium for its controversial nuclear program.

‘The malign actions of China and Russia, and even regional actors like Iran, are serious challenges to our national security interests in Africa,’ Risch said. ‘Countering the influence of these aggressors is as much about the U.S. pursuing greater partnerships with African states as it is about responding to the challenges put forward by countries like Russia and China in Africa.’

Risch weighed in on the role of the U.S. military on the continent, saying it ‘is to protect the American people, first and foremost, and that goal should remain the same in Africa. We have serious security threats in Africa, and we must take them seriously. Remember, Osama bin Laden hid in Sudan, bombed our embassies there, and planned his 9/11 attack.’

Then there’s the question of Islamist terror. Risch said he was ‘concerned about the spread of Islamist militants throughout parts of Africa, and has supported efforts to work with countries to help them get this situation under control.’

He added, ‘I am mindful that it is ultimately not up to us to confront this problem, and we have to stop being the only major player providing international support. Others, including African nations, must do more.’

Washington has Somalian terror clearly on its radar. In banning Somalians from entering the U.S. earlier this month, a White House proclamation stated, ‘The United States Government has identified Somalia as a terrorist safe haven.’

Al-Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated terrorists operate openly. The U.S. military, through its Africa Command, has ramped up action against the groups since President Trump took office. So far this month, the U.S. has already carried out six air strikes against Islamic State in Somalia.

‘I have advocated so strongly for the United States to build an approach that relies less on a central government partner that has not delivered, and more on partners in Somalia and the region to bring about effective counterterrorism gains.

‘Fortunately, President Trump’s Africa policy has already shown he thinks outside the box, as demonstrated by the handling of recent airstrikes on Somalia with less hand-wringing, and more direct and decisive action.’

In Sudan, Russia and Iran have been fingered as protagonists pushing military agendas and war. An estimated 150,000 have been killed, and more than 12 million displaced, since civil war broke out in April 2023.

‘The war in Sudan must end, and the partition of the Sudanese state must be prevented. This is the worst humanitarian disaster in the world, and a playground for malign actors backing both sides,’ he said.

On President Donald Trump’s spearheading of efforts to bring peace to the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Risch said, ‘I know this administration is working hard to secure a deal between DRC and Rwanda that will end the fighting. America must serve as a counterweight to China’s critical minerals deals in the region, but can’t fully do so until the region is more stable.’

In South Africa, government ministers continue to meet with senior Russian, Chinese and Iranian officials. The African National Congress political party, which South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is the leader of, has hosted officials from the Hamas terror group. Yet the country benefits from duty-free benefits for products like cars and fruit in the U.S. under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, AGOA, and other trade deals.

Risch told Fox News Digital, ‘I have consistently raised national security concerns about South Africa’s AGOA eligibility. AGOA is set to expire later this year, and President Trump’s current tariff regime already overrides many of its benefits. I remain critical of the South African government’s posture, which is why I applauded Secretary Rubio’s decision not to allow U.S. representation at the G20.’

In November, South Africa is due to hand over the chairmanship of the G20 to the U.S. But at this time Washington is not sending a single official to the handover ceremony.

Fox News Digital reached out to the South African government, but received no response.

Senate Republicans are gearing up for the first full-scale congressional hearing into the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.

Senators John Cornyn, R-Texas., and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. will co-chair a Senate Judiciary Hearing Wednesday that delves into ‘what exactly went on’ during Biden’s term and why the constitutional power to remove him from office wasn’t triggered.

Cornyn said on the Senate floor that one of the main goals of the hearing was to shine a light on what happened behind the scenes during landmark moments of Biden’s presidency, ‘from the Biden border crisis to the disastrous results from the withdrawal in Afghanistan.

‘And it’s now clear that for many months — no one knows exactly how long — the president was simply not up to the task,’ he said. ‘Whoever happened to be making those decisions and carrying out the duties of the Office of President was not somebody who was authorized by the Constitution or by a vote of the American people.’

Cornyn and Schmitt’s hearing, first announced late last month, will be held after the release of the book ‘Original Sin’ by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, which alleges the Biden White House was trying to control the narrative about the former president’s health and that his allies worked to cover up his decline.

The hearing, ‘Unfit to Serve: How the Biden Cover-Up Endangered America and Undermined the Constitution,’ features a trio of witnesses called by the Senate Republican duo who served during President Donald Trump’s first term and during the Reagan and Bush years.

Among the Republicans’ witnesses are Theodore Wold, who formerly served as acting assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy at the Justice Department and deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy during the Trump administration; Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary and communications director; and John Harrison, a legal scholar from the University of Virginia School of Law who previously served during former the Reagan and Bush administrations.

Wold and Harrison told Fox News Digital their testimony would focus on Biden’s alleged usage of an autopen, a device that is used to automatically mimic a person’s signature, typically used signing of numerous documents, and how the usage of the device may have acted as a smokescreen to prevent the triggering of the 25th Amendment.

Biden has rejected assertions by lawmakers and Trump that he habitually used an autopen. Trump recently ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into whether the former president’s aides ‘abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline.’

Spicer’s testimony will focus on the media’s treatment of Trump compared to Biden during their respective first terms and how some media outlets were allegedly ‘silent’ when it came to signs of the ex-president’s decline.

Democrats on the panel did not call any witnesses.

The top-ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., contended that Cornyn and Schmitt were wasting the panel’s time with their endeavor.

‘We have so many important topics to consider, and this is a totally political undertaking by several of my colleagues,’ he said. ‘It is a waste of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s time.’ 

Iran warned that the United States joining forces with Israel would mean an ‘all-out war,’ as Israel bombarded sites overnight that it says would have allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium, as well as attack Israeli forces.

‘Any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region,’ Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei warned Wednesday during an interview with Al Jazeera English.

He did not elaborate, but thousands of American troops are based in nearby countries within range of Iran’s weapons. The U.S. has threatened a massive response to any attack.

Another Iranian official apparently ruled out demands for the country to give up its disputed nuclear program.

Iran’s ambassador to Geneva, Ali Bahreini, told reporters that Iran ‘will continue to produce the enriched uranium as far as we need for peaceful purposes.’

He rejected any talk of a setback to Iran’s nuclear research and development from the Israeli strikes, saying, ‘Our scientists will continue their work.’

Israeli warplanes pounded Tehran overnight and into Wednesday as Iran launched a small barrage of missiles at Israel with no reports of casualties, according to the Associated Press.

Israel says it launched the strikes to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, after talks between the United States and Iran over a diplomatic resolution had made little visible progress over two months but were still ongoing. 

President Donald Trump has said Israel’s campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks.

Iran has long insisted its nuclear program was peaceful, though it is the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. U.S. intelligence agencies have said they did not believe Iran was actively pursuing the bomb, according to the AP. Israel is believed to be the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons but has never publicly acknowledged them.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday that it eliminated Ali Shadmani, identified as Iran’s ‘wartime chief of staff,’ overnight. Shadmani held the role for only four days before meeting the same fate as his predecessor, spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a video statement Wednesday. 

‘We have delivered significant blows to the Iranian regime, and as such, they have been pushed back into central Iran,’ Defrin said. ‘They are now focusing their efforts on conducting missile fire from the area of Isfahan. We are aiming at military targets, they are attacking civilian homes.’

‘While we are working to remove threats from Iran, we are still fighting their proxy, Hamas in Gaza, who is still holding 53 of our hostages in brutal conditions,’ he added. ‘We will not rest until they are returned home.’  

More than fifty Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter jets conducted three waves of strikes over three hours in an extensive operation Tuesday night, hitting an Iranian centrifuge production site ‘that was intended to enable the regime to continue to enhance its uranium enrichment,’ Defrin said in another statement Wednesday. ‘This complements actions from previous operations we have conducted targeting components of the nuclear program.’ 

Israeli forces have struck over 1,100 different components across Iran as of the sixth day of the conflict, Defrin said.

He said IAF jets also struck several weapons and missile production sites in Tehran. On Wednesday morning, Israeli aircraft identified and struck five Iranian AH-1 attack helicopters located at Kermanshah airport.

‘We have clear goals and objectives: removing the existential threat to the State of Israel, significantly impairing the nuclear program in all its components, and inflicting substantial damage to the missile array,’ Defrin said. 

The IDF said it identified around thirty launches fired from Iran towards Israeli territory in two barrages Tuesday night. 

‘Most of them were intercepted, and there were no casualties. I know these are complex days, but we cannot afford complacency,’ Defrin said, warning Israelis to strictly adhere to home-front safety guidelines. 

Trump initially distanced himself from Israel’s surprise attack on Friday that triggered the conflict, but in recent days has hinted at greater American involvement, saying he wants something ‘much bigger’ than a cease-fire. 

The U.S. has also been shifting assets to the Middle East, including sending more warplanes to the region.

Trump said in social media posts on Wednesday that the U.S. knows where Iran’s Supreme Leader is but would not kill him, for now. He also called for the ‘complete surrender’ of Iran.

‘We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,’ Trump wrote. 

Fox News’ Stephanie Simon and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

While the U.S. weighs its future involvement in the conflict between Iran and Israel, many leaders are looking with fresh eyes at Iran’s activities targeting Americans worldwide over four decades. 

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posted on Tuesday, ‘The forever war is the war that Iran has waged against the U.S., Israel, and the civilized world since 1979.’ 

The examples of Iran’s involvement in attacks on Americans include direct and proxy attacks on U.S. forces, support for terror groups, and assassination efforts.

1979 US Embassy hostage crisis

In the early days of the Islamic revolution in 1979, radical Islamic students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s first supreme religious leader, took hold of the situation, spurning international appeals to release the hostages. The last U.S. hostages were released 444 days later.

1983 Beirut bombings

In 2023, Sayyed Issa Tabatabai, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in Lebanon, admitted during an interview with the state-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that the Islamic Republic was involved in two 1983 bombings that killed Americans in Lebanon. 

The bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut resulted in the deaths of 63 victims, including 17 Americans. When two suicide truck bombs exploded at the barracks of multinational forces in Lebanon, 220 Marines, 18 U.S. Navy sailors and three U.S. Army soldiers were killed, and 58 French troops were murdered.

In the IRNA interview, Tabatabai said ‘I quickly went to Lebanon and provided what was needed in order to [carry out] martyrdom operations in the place where the Americans and Israelis were.’ He also stated that he received a fatwa from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordering him to carry out the attacks, though the IRNA removed the assertion ‘shortly after publication,’ according to a report and translation of the interview from the Middle East Media Research Institute.

1996 Khobar Towers bombing

On June 25, 1996, 19 U.S. Air Force members were killed when a truck bomb exploded outside the Khobar Towers. Al Jazeera reported that in 2006, a U.S. court found the Iranian government responsible for the attack, committed by Saudi members of Hezbollah. The court ordered Iran to pay $254 million to victims of the attack. 

Terrorism support in Iraq and Afghanistan 

According to a 2019 Pentagon report cited by the Military Times, Iran bears responsibility for the deaths of 603 U.S. service members in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. This figure accounted for 17% of U.S. deaths in the country during the period. 

Some U.S. victims have been able to prove Iran’s connections to our enemies in court.

In 2022, surviving family members and victims won a case against the Islamic Republic of Iran, using the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to hold the regime accountable for its support of terror actors who killed or injured 30 U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, testified in support of the victims. He told Fox News Digital that ‘Iran’s support for the Taliban and al Qaeda and the impact it had on the deaths and injuries to American soldiers and civilians is incalculable. Iran provided money, weapons, training, intelligence, and safe haven to Taliban subgroups across Afghanistan, including in the heart of the country in Kabul.’ In Roggio’s estimation, ‘Iran’s support for the Taliban was only rivaled by that of Pakistan. I would argue that Iran’s extensive support facilitated nearly every Taliban attack on U.S. personnel.’

In 2022, the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., found that Iran likewise owed damages to the families and victims of 40 U.S. service members who were injured or killed in Iraq due to Iran’s support of terrorism in the country.

Proxy involvement, attempts at retribution 

In attempted retribution for the murder of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran targeted two U.S. bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq with surface-to-surface missiles in 2020. 

In January 2024, three Americans were killed, and 25 others were wounded in a drone attack on an outpost in Jordan near the border with Syria. Two Iranians, one of whom had dual U.S. citizenship, were charged in connection with the attack.

At the time of the attack, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex) said that Iranian proxies had ‘launched over 150 attacks on U.S. troops’ following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

Roggio reported that on June 14, Iranian-backed militias ‘launched three drones’ at Ain al Assad, a U.S. base in western Iraq. The drones were shot down before reaching their target. 

Roggio said that the drone attack ‘appears to be an unsanctioned strike by an unnamed Iranian militia. Unlike past attacks, no group has claimed credit, and there have been no follow-on strikes.’ He believes Iran ‘wants to keep the U.S. out of the fight, as the U.S. military has the capability to hit the underground nuclear facility at Fordow.’ 

Between October 2023 and August 2024, Iranian-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq militias launched 180 attacks against U.S. forces in Syria, Iraq and Jordan. Throughout their ‘decades of experience,’ Roggio says Iraqi militias ‘are estimated to have killed more than 600 U.S. service members.’

Kidnappings 

Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent and private investigator, disappeared from an Iranian island in 2007. Levinson was held hostage and was declared dead in 2020, when he was said to have died in Iranian custody. His family blamed the Iranian regime for his capture and imprisonment.

Just last year, Iran executed Jamshid Sharmahd. Sharmahd survived an assassination attempt in California in which an Iranian agent was convicted of the planned murder. He was then kidnapped by the Iranian regime in Dubai in 2020 as part of a business trip.

The history of prisoner exchanges between Iran and the U.S. dates back to 1979. The most recent prisoner exchange of five Americans imprisoned in Iran for five Iranians detained in the U.S. occurred in September 2023. As part of the deal, the U.S. released $6 billion in frozen assets in South Korea. 

Assassinations

In November, the Department of Justice announced charges against an Iranian citizen and two New Yorkers for their role in a murder-for-hire plot targeting multiple American citizens, including President Donald Trump. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday that Trump remains an Islamic Republic target. ‘They want to kill him. He’s enemy number one.’

Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.