It was clear even before the hearing started that battle lines were being drawn. Democrats denounced the title as “incendiary”.
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House Republicans on Thursday pressed Obama administration officials on whether a settlement with Iran constituted ransom for freed American prisoners, comparing the payment to midnight drug-deal money drop. The cash, paid in European currency, arrived in Tehran Jan. 17, the same day that the hostages were flown home. If so, the administration is not being truthful about the 1.7 billion.
Williams ended the rant saying the United States owes “nothing” to Iran because the country “is a state sponsor of terrorism that imprisons Americans and taunts our Navy”. “Hillary Clinton’s support for President Obama’s approach to Iran, including the deeply flawed nuclear deal she helped spearhead, reflects the same bad judgment that characterized her foreign policy decision-making as Secretary of State”.
Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., questioned State Department officials about why the payment to Iran had to be in cash, which Republicans repeatedly referred to as “the currency of terrorism”.
Other critical lawmakers have vowed to look into the payment now that they’ve returned from recess, including Sen. “It has every appearance at this point that that’s exactly what happened to American tax dollars, that their tax dollars were transitioned into cash and then sent directly to Iran”.
“The American people want to know: did this administration pay ransom?”
The move comes as new details are emerging about just how and when the Obama administration completed the transfer of $1.7 billion to settle claims related to the incomplete sale of military weapons before the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
“Iran had to have it in cash”, Ahren said. On the settlement over the sales of arms, Zarif said it was possible that if Iran did not use this opportunity to resolve the dispute, it could have dragged on much longer. He said the committee was creating a higher level of “stinktivity”.
Critics of the deal with Iran say the administration has refused to reveal complete details about when and how the cash was sent, and say hundreds of millions in cash could end up in the hands of terrorists Iran backs, and endanger Americans.
“It shall be the policy of the United States Government not to pay ransom or release prisoners for the goal of securing the release of United States citizens taken hostage overseas”, the legislation states.
“This committee requested records … more than a month ago and to date the self-proclaimed most transparent administration in our history has failed to provide any, not one document to this committee”, said Rep. Sean Duffy (R., Wis.), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, during the hearing.
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The officials also stated that “they believed the US was set to lose the court proceedings in The Hague and would end up being liable for as much as $10 billion because of accrued interest”. Instead, the administration calls it ‘diplomacy’.
