It appears that Barack Obama and State Department spokesman John Kirby lied to the American people earlier this month about the $400 million cash given to Iran when they claimed that it was not a ransom payment for the Americans held hostage.
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On Thursday, State Department spokesman John Kirby repeated the administration’s position that the negotiations to return the Iranian money – the result of an aborted arms deal in the 1970s with the USA -backed shah – were conducted separately from the talks to free four US citizens in Iran.
“We felt it would be imprudent not to consider that some leverage in trying make sure our Americans got out”, Kirby said, noting the deep mistrust between the countries.
The White House has claimed that the $400 million payment in euros and Swiss francs was the first installment in a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a failed 1979 arms deal dating from just before the Iranian Revolution. They said the delay was exclusively tied to USA efforts to locate the wife and mother of another imprisoned American, the Washington Post’s former Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian, and ensuring they were allowed to board the Swiss plane as well.
The $400m (£303m) cash payment delivered to Iran in January was contingent on the release of three Americans prisoners being held, the State Department said. Administration officials have refused to publicly disclose how and when the transfer took place.
On Thursday, Kirby said the timing of the final transactions was linked.
One more prisoner, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, chose to remain in Iran, while a fifth prisoner, American student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately.
The coincidence had many believing the Obama administration had paid a ransom, a claim Obama rejected, saying, “We do not pay ransom”. The total, which has since been paid in full, represented money that Iran had paid for military equipment that was never delivered, plus interest and inflation over 37 years.
“First of all, this was Iran’s money”, Kirby told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “OutFront”.
“Our top priority was getting the Americans home”, said a USA official. The family has received images of him in captivity, though the Iranian government has maintained they don’t know who is holding him. The administration has maintained that paying ransom is against USA policy and that this money belonged to the Iranians independently of the situation with the prisoners.
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“This $400 million ransom, along with the $100 billion Iran has already collected from the USA, will further Iran’s funding of terrorist organizations who launch regular attacks in Israel, as well as their funding of militia fighters directly working to undermine our coalition forces in Iraq and Syria”, he added.
