The natural question is, Did the USA pay ransom to Iran in order to free its citizens?
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A top aide to Donald TrumpDonald TrumpReagan’s son: My dad would back McCain, Ryan Trump campaign expands OH operation: report Trump aide: Obama trying to “cover-up” Iran cash MORE’s presidential campaign says President Obama wants to hide his administration’s $400 million payment to Iran.
Obama and his advisers have been pushed into spin mode in recent days after a report in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal provided the extraordinary details surrounding the mysterious cash payment to Iran.
“For the United States, this settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran”, he said.
Clinton’s comments stand in contrast to what many in Congress are saying, that the administration left them completely in the dark on the money transfer, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday.
Royce, who has sponsored legislation to prevent the administration from giving Iran access to the USA dollar and the US banking system, plans to hold hearings on the payment soon.
The Syrian government continues to violate a truce in the war there, and Russia’s actions in Syria raise questions about its intentions in the country, Obama said.
After all, the White House’s spokesman noted, President Barack Obama publicly announced the payment last January as part of the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal.
“This wasn’t some nefarious deal”, President Obama said.
He said the United States does not pay ransom for hostages and that the money was not linked to the prisoners’ release. Restrictions on USA banking relationships with Iran mean “we could not send them a check, and we could not wire them the money”. “It’s also why it was hard for the United States to make an argument in this case that we can just keep the money. John Kerry could meet with the foreign minister, which meant that our ability to clear accounts on a number of different issues at the same time converged”, Obama said. The Clinton administration had agreed in 2000 to pay that $400 million to Americans who had won lawsuits against Iran in U.S. courts.
The cash was delivered to the Iranian government in January, at the same time the nuclear deal was settled and the Americans were released. “People knew what it was going to look like, and there was concern the Iranians probably did consider it a ransom payment, ” one source familiar with Justice Department discussions told the Journal.
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The White House has dismissed claims that it paid Iran a “ransom” in exchange for the release of four hostages in January, but one terror finance expert says the sketchy transfer has the hallmarks of a ransom. Instead, they contend it was part of a $1.7 billion settlement from a failed arms deal that dated back to the late 1970’s. This ransom has already proven to result in the consequences of why America shouldn’t have agreed to this payment in the first place. Iran has started imprisoning multiple Iranian-Americans again as well as foreigners from other nations, which are America’s allies.
