“Today’s admission by the State Department that it withheld its $400 million cash payment until the hostages were released proves what I, and many others, have said from the beginning: The Obama administration paid a ransom to a terrorist regime that has backed deadly attacks against America and our allies”.
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Kirby said the Office of the Legal Adviser interviewed more than 30 current and former State Department officials trying to determine why there was a sudden flash of light and an eight-minute gap in the video of a 2013 news briefing.
“Already under fire for lying to the American people about her illegal email server, Clinton is continuing to align herself with an administration that has continually lied to Americans as well”. But the Obama administration portrayed the link as the opposite of what Republicans have charged, saying that the cash was used as leverage, not a ransom, to assure Iran’s release of the prisoners.
Both U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have denied that the payment was ransom for the release of the prisoners or tied to the Iran nuclear deal.
“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”, Kirby said Thursday.
Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has asked current U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to appear at a committee hearing to discuss the payment.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that American officials did not allow Iran to take possession of the planeload of $400 million in European currencies until the three American hostages – Jason Rezaian, Amir Hekmati and Saeed Abedini – were freed.
“This wasn’t some nefarious deal”, he said. “We didn’t here”, Obama said.
Obama has said his negotiators secured the US a good deal on a busy diplomatic weekend that also included finalizing the seven-nation nuclear accord. US officials have said they expected an imminent ruling on the claim and settled with Tehran instead.
The $400 million flown to Iran that day was the first installment in a $1.7 billion settlement, part of a long-standing dispute over an arms deal that fell through when the shah was overthrown in 1979.
“If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck”, Sen.
The US government insists that money was to settle an old debt stemming from a military purchase by Iran.
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But critics have said the carefully choreographed payment was, in effect, a ransom paid in violation of USA policy meant to discourage hostage-taking. Ben Sasse, (R-Neb.). “The truth matters and the President owes the American people an explanation”.
