That cash payment was made in January on the same day Iran released four American prisoners and formally implemented the nuclear deal. President Hassan Rouhani and his allies for their part have pointed to the payments as proof that engagement with the United States is paying dividends.
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“President Obama may have attempted to appease our enemy with pallets of cash secretly delivered on an unmarked cargo plane, but Iran continues to cheat on the nuclear deal, harass our military, hold Americans hostage, and fund terrorism around the world”, Florida senator Marco Rubio, who introduced legislation related to the payment, said in a statement Tuesday. And since Iran has regularly professed contempt and hatred for the US and Israel, it would be stupid to give them money. Iran asked for immediate payment to address dire economic concerns brought on by financial sanctions, and the US transferred the funds to a representative of Iran’s central bank.
“It would have taken longer, but the dispute that this payment was supposed to settle was over 30 years old”, said Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee.
“The witnesses today only agreed under threat of subpoena” to appear before Congress, Duffy said.
Acknowledging the dark aftershocks of the Vietnam War, President Barack Obama paid tribute Wednesday to survivors maimed by some 80 million unexploded bombs America dropped on Laos decades ago and pledged US help to.
The $1.7 billion settlement was meant to resolve a dispute before an worldwide tribunal at The Hague over funds Iran paid decades ago to buy weapons from the United States, the sales of which was suspended after Iran’s 1979 revolution broke out.
It was Iran’s fcking money!
“He gave the Iranians money to get Americans out of jail – to think anything else is insane”, Graham said on CNN last month.
“Sending the world’s leading state sponsor of terror pallets of untraceable cash isn’t just bad policy”, Royce said.
The video claimed that Iran’s conditions for the release of the Iranian-Americans were the release of Iranians held in the United States for sanctions violations, the removal of a number of individuals from the list of sanctions violators and the payment of $1.7 billion.
The U.S. owed weapons to the Shah of Iran who signed the deal, not the revolutionary government. The two planeloads, which passed through Europe on January 22 and February 5, followed the same route as the earlier payment, a congressional aide who was briefed told the Journal.
Information about the payment and the circumstances surrounding it remains a mystery. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) asked why the administration had paid Iran its claim before Iran satisfied the VTVPA claims – which total $465 million plus interest. He said his lawyers assessed that “there was significant litigation risk” regarding Iran’s claim.
The payments included Swiss francs, euros and other currencies, according to the Journal.
Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) said Republicans tried to make the administration look “like criminals dropping bags of cash in the middle of the night like drug dealers”.
See? They said, they said.
The administration officials would not provide in-depth details, citing diplomatic sensitivities. “All of this was done in secret, hidden from the American people and from Congress”.
Christopher Backemeyer, deputy assistant secretary for Iranian affairs at the State Department, responded that global banks are reluctant to handle transactions with the Iranian regime, making it hard to transmit the money to Iran via checks or wire transfers.
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“There will be limitations to what I and my colleagues can say in an open setting”, he explained.
