The Obama administration’s claims that a $400 million cash payment to Iran on the same day American hostages were released and the nuclear deal between the two countries was inked was not a ransom doesn’t quite wash.
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Iran released five Americans in January in return for seven Iranians held by the U.S. – just as sanctions were lifted against Tehran when an global deal was struck over its nuclear programme.
Obama administration officials have dismissed the controversy as old news, noting that the settlement was fully disclosed by the White House and State Department at the time the Iran nuclear deal was announced.
“People knew what it was going to look like, and there was concern the Iranians probably did consider it a ransom payment”, a source familiar with the interagency discussions told the Journal. “We don not pay ransom for hostages”.
The State Department said that the payment was part of a decades-long legal dispute surrounding compensation for an arms deal that was subsequently revoked after Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was ousted from power in 1979. “That doesn’t make any sense”, Obama said.
But that straightforward message was overshadowed by running mate Donald Trump’s repeated claim that he’d seen a video purporting to show the money being unloaded off a plane in Iran – a video that does not exist.
Obama stated that to pay ransom for one group of hostages, while others are still waiting for release, defies logic.
And to this day, we’re still trying to figure out the timing, when did this money arrive, and through this reporting, there is indications that it was secret, that basically these Americans weren’t going to be released until that money arrived. It was not a nefarious deal. USA procured the money from the central bank of Netherlands and Switzerland.
Explaining the airlift, Earnest said “the fact of the matter is the United States does not have a banking relationship with Iran”.
“It’s always the top priority to figure out some way to get those Americans home”, said Asgard.
David Ibsen, president of United Against Nuclear Iran, told Salon that the recent detention of Robin Shahini, another USA citizen, is further evidence that Washington should be thwarting-not rewarding-Iran’s bad behavior. As for those polls, his campaign chairman says they expected Trump to slump after the Democratic convention and it’s no cause to worry. The equipment went undelivered after a revolution led to the 1980 hostage crisis and the establishment of an Islamic government with which the US still lacks diplomatic relations.
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Obama’s call for 10,000 entries this year was criticized by most Republican governors and the GOP presidential candidates, who argued that the government lacked an adequate screening system to prevent suspected terrorists from slipping into the U.S.
