While the Obama administration has admitted to transferring $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year to Tehran, even more cash might have been given by the U.S. to the ayatollahs following the January 2014 implementation of the interim nuclear agreement reached by the Islamic Republic with six world powers, an Iran expert revealed at a congressional hearing on Thursday. It would also forbid any future claims until Iran pays the more than $55 billion awarded by USA courts to American victims of Iranian-backed terror and to the Americans held hostage by Iran in 1979, and require certification that any funds provided to Iran will not be used for terrorism.
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The administration had claimed the events were separate, but the administration recently acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran. “Iran was very aware of the difficulties it would face in accessing and using the funds if they were in any other form than cash, even after the lifting of sanctions”.
U.S. 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.
In addition to hearings, Republicans in Congress are moving forward legislatively to prevent further “ransom” payments to Iran. “The cash payments shipped in the middle of the night to Iran should instead have gone to the loved ones of those murdered by the Iranian regime”, he said Lance after introducing the Victims Before Ransom Act.
Officials did say that the two transactions were negotiated separately over a period of years.
“Not only has the delivery of the millions of dollars been perceived as a ransom, provided as an incentive to seize more hostages … but because the money was delivered in cash the payment bolstered the strength of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and augmented its ability to finance and conduct terrorism”, he said.
Coons then said that he knew of “an outstanding judgment” for the arms sale “that would need to be resolved as part of the resolution of the [Iran nuclear deal], the release of American hostages, and other matters”.
Earlier Tuesday, officials from the State, Justice and Treasury departments held a private briefing for congressional staff members on the payments, according to a Capitol Hill aide familiar with the session. That is also the argument of Republicans, including Donald Trump, the party’s candidate for president. “And the question is why was that done?” asked House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas). “But those families know that we have a policy that we don’t pay ransom”.
She said after the hearing she was “absolutely” more anxious about his safety and that of Americans in uniform or overseas because of the appearance of these payments.
“I can’t speak to every dollar that’s going to go in or out of Iran”, he said. “We shouldn’t put a price on the heads of Americans, in this case it was $400 million”.
Wendy Sherman, one of Hillary Clinton’s longtime-advisors, said during a Wednesday interview on MSNBC that “Secretary Clinton supports” the Obama administration’s decision to pay Iran almost $2 billion for the release three United States prisoners.
“The US government should not be in the business of negotiating with terrorists and paying ransom money in exchange for the release of American hostages”, he added.
With Congress returning to Washington after a summer break, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., introduced legislation created to stop similar cash payments to foreign countries, censure the Obama administration and require Congress to be given a warning about such payments in the future. Three dual U.S. -Iranian citizens are still being held in Iran. Critics called it ransom.
The $1.7 billion was the settlement of a decades-old arbitration claim between the United States and Iran.
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“What’s worse than a $400 million cash ransom to Iran?”
