In this October 23, 2015 file-pool photo, Secretary of State John Kerry, speaks to senior adviser John Kirby before a news conference in Vienna.
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The Obama administration acknowledged that the release of $400 million in cash to Iran in January was linked to Iran’s release of American prisoners, but rejected notions it was a ransom payment.
But the way Obama’s critics are talking, you would think that we offered cash in exchange for the release of the USA prisoners.
“As we said at the time we deliberately leveraged that moment to finalize those outstanding issues almost simultaneously as it is already publicly known that we returned to Iran its 400 million dollars in that same time period as part of the Hague settlement agreement”.
“Now that the State Department has admitted the $400 million the Obama administration secretly sent to Iran was tied to the release of us prisoners, Hillary Clinton must immediately disavow this risky blunder or risk putting more Americans in jeopardy”, he said in a statement Friday”.
State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the US refused to allow Iran to take possession of the cash until a plane carrying the freed Americans had taken off from Tehran. But now, Kirby concedes that USA officials would not release the cash to the Iranians at an airport in Geneva, Switzerland, until the Swiss Air Force plane left Tehran, Iran, carrying out the prisoners.
Iranian prisoners – some of them dual citizens – who were being released from United States jails in exchange for the Americans were refusing to return to Iran, raising suspicions on the Iranian side, the official said.
“I can understand why people might think that”, Kirby said, reiterating his claim that the money belonged to Iran as a result of the Hague tribunal. “That was our top priority”, Kirby said.
Republicans allege that the payment was a ransom in exchange for the release of three American prisoners in Iran. Several members of Congress immediately pounced on Thursday’s shift.
“If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck”, Mr. Sasse said. Republican lawmakers also criticized the action, saying it undermined the longstanding US opposition to ransom payments. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman.
At a rally in Charlotte, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump called the transaction ransom for hostages.
“He denied it was for the hostages, but it was”, Trump said.
“We would not, we have not, we will not, pay a ransom to secure the release of USA citizens”, Earnest said.
“We do not pay ransom for hostages”, Obama said at the time.
On the day of the transfer, non-U.S. currency cash – in euros and Swiss francs among others – was stacked on wooden pallets and flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane. He said the USA didn’t trust Iran, because it was taking longer than expected to gather all the Americans on that flight and officials were anxious Iran would renege.
Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said earlier this month that the US didn’t and wouldn’t “pay ransom to secure the release of USA citizens”. The funds belonged to the Iranians – the former shah of Iran meant to use the money to purchase military equipment.
Following the deposing of the Shah of Iran, so called Iranian students stormed the USA embassy and held hostage 66 diplomats and US citizens.
“Not only were the two negotiations separate – they were conducted by different teams on each side, including, in the case of The Hague claims, by technical experts involved in these negotiations for many years”, he added.
Negotiations were also conducted during this period to secure the return of the three USA prisoners held by Iran-a Washington Post reporter, a Marine veteran and a pastor.
Reports of link between prisoner release & payment to Iran are completely false.
“It’s true that with the nuclear deal done, these two tracks were kind of converging and coming together, and we took full advantage of that, and we make no apologies for that”, he said.
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“This wasn’t some nefarious deal”, he said.
