“The payment “flowed in the same manner” as the original $400 million”.
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Senior Obama administration officials, under the threat of a subpoena, were forced to appear on Capitol Hill on Thursday to explain why lawmakers and the American public were kept in the dark about a $1.7 billion cash payment to Iran that has been widely viewed as a ransom to free imprisoned USA hostages.
United States officials had previously acknowledged that the first $400 million was paid and delivered to Tehran by plane on January 17th – on the same day that four American prisoners, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, were flown out of Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.
“They can’t deal in banking because banks won’t deal with Iran”, Sen.
The Obama administration officials said that the release of hostages at the same time was part of a complicated series of events and negotiations that did not amount to ransom.
The payment was made in hard cash, and entirely in foreign currency.
Not everyone has believed the White House’s statements, however.
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Republican senators have endorsed similar legislation that would bar payments from the Judgment Fund to Iran until Tehran pays the almost $55.6 billion that USA courts have judged that it owes to American victims of Iranian terrorism. The administration explained the $400 million was a settlement between the two countries that would effectively keep the matter out of worldwide litigation and save the US billions. “We now know it was ransom”. In mid-August, the State Department did, however, acknowledge that the return of that money was contingent upon the release of USA prisoners from the country.
“Make better use of your time”, Rep. Al Green of Texas told his fellow Democrats as they left the chamber after almost two and a half hours of testimony by administration officials.
And what does Obama do? The administration however did not reveal that the interest settlement was in cash like that of the original debt.
“The total now stands at $1.7 billion that this Administration has handed over to Iran – the world’s most notorious financier of global terrorism and mass murder”.
“It would be far easier for Tehran to procure advanced weaponry from Russian Federation and China, for example, if it can pay for it with hard currency rather than through the formal financial system, having to circumvent the United Nations arms embargo and US financial sanctions”, according to Saeed Ghasseminejad, an associate fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
The U.S. previously paid out $278 million in Iran-related claims by using the fund in 1991.
The New York Times however reported that the Iranian press had described the payment as a ransom – which fits Tehran’s narrative that it has outmaneuvered the Obama administration. “If many billions arrived in Iran on pallets [of cash] this would be a pretty astounding revelation”.
Iran is sponsoring a revolution in Yemen, sending money and equipment to rebels fighting a western backed democracy in that country.
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Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., the chairman of the oversight subcommittee, cited some news reports that the cash paid to Iran is being used to fund the Iranian military to help Hezbollah and other terrorist groups in the Middle East.
