Since, as Kirby said yesterday, we wouldn’t give Iran the money unless the prisoners were released, the money was paid in order to free them.
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The call was an attempt to help explain the way a $400 million cash payment – part of a settlement in another dispute – was handled as leverage for the prisoners.
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 president and the State Department deceived us all, Congress and, more importantly, the American people”, said Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Washington released seven Iranians, mostly dual Iranian-American nationals convicted of sanctions violations, as part of the deal.
The various demands led the U.S.to believe there was a possibility the American prisoners would be returned to Iran’s notorious Evin prison, the official said.
Around the same time, issues were popping up in the US. We are glad that the Americans who were held hostage in Iran are back with their families, and our prayers remain with the family of former FBI Agent Robert Levinson, who has been missing in Iran for more than nine years.
“One of the Iranian-Americans in a United States prison then refused his pardon initially”, said the official, “and the Iranians in Geneva said that, unless he accepted his pardon, they would not release our people”.
And, oh yeah, in the midst of cementing the president’s vaunted Iran deal no one thought Iran was trustworthy unless threatened financially.
Republican incumbent Pat Toomey opposes the Iran nuclear deal and has been critical of the payment to Iran.
“It would have been irresponsible under these circumstances for us to move ahead with the separate Hague settlement and subsequent payment unless and until we knew the Americans were free”, the official said. “What we thought and hoped would be a smooth culmination day ended up being hardly that”.
The State Department’s admission comes after President Barack Obama said on August 4 that the $400 million cash payment to Iran was not a ransom.
The 1981 Algiers Accord between the US and Iran that set up the tribunal made repayment mandatory, and allowed for either claimant to seize assets in worldwide courts if the other reneged on a ruling, the official said.
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“Because we had concerns that Iran may renege on the prisoner release … we of course naturally … sought to retain maximum leverage until after the Americans were released”, spokesman John Kirby said. Why didn’t he? One obvious explanation is that, even if he didn’t regard the timing of the payment as a form of ransom, connecting the payment to the prisoners’ release encourages the opposite interpretation – which in turn would create an incentive to hold more Americans hostage.
