The White House and State Department can argue forever this wasn’t a ransom payment, but it looks like one.
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In a speech Thursday night in Charlotte, North Carolina, Trump accused President Barack Obama of lying.
However, the top GOP leadership and the Trump campaign was quick in criticising the Obama Administration alleging that the United States paid ransom for release of its prisoners.
“But we wouldn’t be having this discussion if the Islamic Republic were a government that abided by worldwide norms and did not arbitrarily hold hostages as bargaining chips”, he said.
Administration officials said the two transactions were negotiated entirely separately over a period of years. 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.
Some observers, however, said Thursday they don’t see the distinction. While the negotiations over the prisoners and the cash might have been separate, the resolutions clearly weren’t. They weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.
With “Republicans” controlling both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, Obama’s deal with Iran should have easily gone down in defeat.
Even Secretary of State John Kerry’s excuse that the planes were delayed because a passenger’s wife was left off the plane’s manifest now seems deliberately contrived.
Iran will receive the balance of $400 million in the Trust Fund, as well as a roughly $1.3 billion compromise on the interest. As a result, he explained, the U.S.
Kirby noted that the money was given to Iran after the prisoners had been released in an effort to “retain maximum leverage”, not before, as a ransom payment typically happens.
The prisoner swap fueled skepticism about the extent to which the USA may have appeased Iran in the name of finalizing the landmark nuclear deal.
The $400 million payment has been routinely criticized by Donald Trump in many of his stump speeches.
Critics, especially those who oppose the Iran nuclear deal, have termed it a ransom payment. It was the first stated connection by a government official between the payment and the detainees’ release. The president also said that the reason why the money was given in cash was because the United States is “so strict in maintaining sanctions” and because the country has “no banking relationship” with Iran. But unlike with past descriptions, he said the US withheld the delivery of the cash as leverage until Iran permitted the Americans to leave the country.
“I can assure you that we don’t do anything without notifying Congress, regardless of what that may be”, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said after the Journal story broke.
But Friday’s explanation, while more detailed than previous tick-tocks of the diplomacy, still didn’t answer why the administration insisted for seven months that the money and the prisoners never became part of a common negotiation.
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The statement from the Trump campaign came after U.S. State Department Spokesman John Kirby confirmed at a press briefing Thursday that the $400 million payment was withheld until Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and three other Americans were released.
