A new Wall Street Journal report says Iran couldn’t take the U.S.’ settlement money until Iran released the American prisoners it was holding.
Advertisement
The Wall Street Journal, citing US officials and people familiar with the operation, reported that an Iranian cargo plane transporting the cash was allowed to take off only after the Americans were “wheels up”. If that’s not a ransom payment, then nothing is.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced the seizure as “highway robbery” and pledged that Iran would retrieve the sum anyway.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a one-time contender for the Republican presidential nomination, tweeted that the details of the report “confirm secret payoff amounted to ransom”.
“This wasn’t some nefarious deal”, Obama said earlier this month.
The Obama administration, though, has pushed back against such allegations, claiming the timing of the large payment was just a coincidence.
For those who aren’t familiar, the Obama administration agreed to pay Iran $1.7 billion for a 1979 arms deal.
The payment was confirmed by the State Department official to The Weekly Standard, an opinion magazine published by the American mass media behemoth News Corporation reported on Tuesday.
Executives from Iran’s flagship carrier, Iran Air, organized the round-trip flight from Tehran to Geneva where the cash-euros and Swiss francs and other currencies stacked on shipping pallets-was loaded onto the aircraft, these people said.
“Our top priority was getting the Americans home”, said an unnamed U.S. official who spoke to The Journal.
One of the Americans released in January was Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini. Abedini said he was told by a senior Iranian intelligence official that their departure was contingent on the movement of a second plane. Those concerns reportedly were dismissed by the State Department.
Advertisement
GOP lawmakers skeptical of the explanation have said they plan to hold hearings on the matter when Congress reconvenes in September. Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., chair of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, last week sent letters to the Justice and Treasury Departments, as well as the Federal Reserve, requesting more information the transaction. Administration officials have refused to publicly disclose how and when the cash transfer authorized by Mr. Obama took place.
