“We felt it would be imprudent not to consider that some leverage in trying to make sure our Americans got out”, said State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
Advertisement
“That was our top priority”, he said.
Iranian prisoners – some of them dual citizens – who were being released from U.S. jails in exchange for the Americans were refusing to return to Iran, raising suspicions on the Iranian side, the official said.
The electioneering presidential hopeful Donald Trump says it is more proof Obama is dishonest.
The administration’s defense came after the State Department outlined for the first time that the January 17 repayment of money from a 1970s Iranian account to buy US military equipment was connected to a U.S.
The fact remains – and this week was finally acknowledged by this administration – that, yes, our government paid a $400 million ransom in cold, hard cash to Iran’s government for the release of four American hostages last January, the same day the nuclear deal with Iran was implemented.
The Jan. 17 agreement involved the return of the $400 million, plus an additional $1.3 billion in interest, terms that Obama described as favorable compared to what might have been expected from a tribunal set up in The Hague to rule on claims between the two countries.
“We do not pay ransom for hostages”, Obama said.
“Speaking of lies, we now know from the State Department announcement that President Obama lied about the $400 million dollars in cash that was flown to Iran”, Trump said.
“He denied it was for the hostages, but it was. He lied about the hostages, openly and blatantly”. He said we don’t pay ransom, but he did.
His opponent in the race for the White House, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, was no longer serving as the nation’s top diplomat when the accord came into effect.
Still, Trump senior communications advisor Jason Miller said that “by helping put together a deal that ultimately sent $400M to Iran that was likely used to fund terrorism, Clinton has proven herself unfit to be president of the United States”.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Obama “owes the American people a full accounting of his actions and the risky precedent he has set”.
Maybe the negotiations were separate to begin with (should we still take their word on that?), but as soon as things started looking iffy the administration made the release of the money contingent on the release of the prisoners.
“The president owes the American people a full accounting of his actions and the unsafe precedent he has set”, Ryan added. That’s what everyone outside the Obama administration would call a linkage, a quid pro quo or a tie.
Advertisement
The story was given prominence on most news sites and in newspapers.
