Fox News reported that the money was apparently tied to a failed military equipment deal between the two nations stemming from 1979, but as State Department spokesman John Kirby explained, the deal was conducted separate from the negotiations to free the four prisoners, and so it cannot be categorized as a ransom.
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The money was held up because of concern Iran would not come through on its agreement to release the prisoners earlier this year, spokesman John Kirby said.
But Kirby acknowledged for the first time that the USA withheld delivery of the cash as leverage until the U.S. citizens had left Iran. In 1981, with the reaching of the Algiers Accords and the creation of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, Iran filed a claim for these funds, tying them up in litigation at the Tribunal.
The payment was made January 17, on the same day the detainees were released.
During a presidential rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, GOP nominee Donald Trump blasted President Barack Obama for the new admission, stating that this would put Americans traveling overseas at risk for kidnapping, the Boston Herald reports. “He denied it was for the hostages, but it was”.
“We don’t pay ransom for hostages”, Obama said earlier this month, adding that Americans are held prisoners around the world and that “we won’t pay ransoms in the future”. He lied about the hostages – openly and blatantly – just like he lied about Obamacare.
Kirby spoke after The Wall Street Journal reported that the departures of the crisscrossing planes were linked.
This week reporters were able to eke a confession out of the administration that indeed the Iran Air plane loaded with that cash was not allowed to take off from Geneva until USA operatives were assured that the plane carrying the hostages had left the airfield in Tehran. The fourth American left on a commercial flight.
The White House said the payment was made in foreign currencies, including cash euros, because of remaining US sanctions against Iran that prohibit payment in USA dollars or through the USA banking system. The funds belonged to the Iranians – the former shah of Iran meant to use the money to purchase military equipment.
The military hardware was never delivered after the Shah was deposed by the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The two sides have wrangled over that account and numerous other financial claims ever since.
The Obama administration adamantly denies a quid pro quo, saying that the $400 million was part of the sanctions relief for nuclear rollback deal, and settled outstanding Iranian claims against the US government.
“Clinton’s support for Obama’s Iran ransom reflects the same bad judgment that characterized her decision-making as secretary of State, which left the world a more unstable and unsafe place”, he said. USA officials have said they expected an imminent ruling on the claim and settled with Tehran instead.
Three of the five prisoners, including Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post’s Tehran bureau chief, were part of a prisoner exchange that followed the lifting of most worldwide sanctions against Iran following a nuclear deal in 2015. He said that as the prisoners waited for hours at an airport to leave Iran, a senior Iranian intelligence official informed them their departure depended on the plane with the cash.
“If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck”, Mr. Sasse said.
The State Department’s letter in response repeated previous administration claims that the cash transfer and prisoner exchange were not connected.
“The president owes the American people an explanation”, disclosed Sen.
Former Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican from IN who questioned Hillary Clinton at length about the foundation and potential conflicts of interest IN her 2009 nomination hearing, said this week that he was hopeful that she would make a clean break from the foundation if she’s elected president.
Meanwhile, a US State Department video of a press briefing about secret US-Iran nuclear talks was deliberately edited but there is no evidence to suggest the cut was meant to hide information, a US spokesman said on Thursday after further details were released of an investigation into the incident.
“The president himself talked about the timing”, Kirby said on Thursday.
Congress returns from a lengthy recess after Labor Day.
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Instead of obfuscating, they should have unapologetically acknowledged that they refused to go through with the legal settlement payment until Iran made good on its commitment to release the prisoners. Duffy wants responses by August 24.
