How Much Money Did Obsma Send To Iran
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The Obama administration used a $400 million cash payment as leverage to ensure that Iran released four Americans who were being held there as prisoners. The revelation led some Republicans to accuse the Obama assistants of paying ransom—something the administration denied.[one] [2]
Co-ordinate to a report from The Wall Street Periodical, "U.Southward. officials wouldn't permit Iranians take control of the money until a Swiss Air Force plane carrying four freed Americans departed from Tehran on January. 17. Once that happened, an Iranian cargo plane was allowed to bring the greenbacks home from a Geneva airport that twenty-four hour period."[1] [2]
HIGHLIGHTS
The timing of the cash payment, which occurred the same weekend the nuclear bargain with Iran was formally implemented, raised suspicions that the Obama assistants paid ransom to secure the release of the four Americans. On Baronial 18, 2016, when asked nigh the exchange, State Section spokesman John Kirby said, "Nosotros deliberately leveraged that moment to finalize these outstanding issues nearly simultaneously. With concerns that Islamic republic of iran may renege on the prisoner release, given unnecessary delays regarding persons in Islamic republic of iran who could not be located every bit well equally, to exist quite honest, mutual mistrust between Iran and the United States, we of course sought to retain maximum leverage until subsequently American citizens were released. That was our top priority." He added that the U.S. does non pay ransom.[3]
The payment was function of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a dispute over $400 million that Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi paid to the U.S. in 1979 "for military parts that were never delivered because of the Islamic revolution that toppled him." Although the payment and the return of the four Americans occurred in Jan 2016, the details of the payment did not receive attending until The Wall Street Journal published an article on Baronial 3, 2016, explaining that the administration sent "[west]ooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies" to Islamic republic of iran "on an unmarked cargo plane" just before Americans Jason Rezaian, Amir Hekmati, Saeed Abedini, and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari were released from an Iranian prison. The Obama assistants too released seven Iran nationals and "agreed to drop the names of 14 Iranian nationals information technology has been seeking from the picket list of Interpol, the international police agency."[4] [2]
On September 6, 2016, congressional officials briefed by the U.S. State, Treasury, and Justice departments told The Wall Street Periodical that the Obama administration sent 2 boosted shipments of cash in a cargo airplane to Iran after sending an initial $400 million cash payment. The second and third payments were fabricated in Swiss francs, euros, and other currencies on January 22, 2016, and February 5, 2016. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The Obama administration previously had refused to disclose the mechanics of the $1.seven billion settlement, despite repeated calls from U.S. lawmakers. The State Department announced the settlement on Jan. 17 but didn't cursory Congress that the entire amount had been paid in cash."[five]
Background
President Barack Obama and senior U.Due south. officials denied any link between the cash payment and the release of the American hostages, but the Iranians portrayed the payment as bribe. Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi said to state media, "Taking this much money dorsum was in render for the release of the American spies."[4]
Afterwards The Wall Street Journal initially reported the details of the $400 million payment on August 3, 2016, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) accused President Obama of paying "a $1.7 billion ransom to the ayatollahs for U.Due south. hostages." Cotton fiber added, "This intermission with longstanding U.Due south. policy put a toll on the caput of Americans, and has led Iran to keep its illegal seizures [of Americans]." Ii Iranian-Americans take been arrested by the Iran's Revolutionary Guard since the cash shipment.[four]
On Baronial iv, 2016, Obama responded to critics who said that the $400 meg sent to Iran was a ransom payment. He said, "Nosotros do not pay bribe. We didn't here, and we won't in the future. Those families know we have a policy that nosotros don't pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow showtime now, in this high-profile way, and announce it to the earth, even as we're looking in the faces of other hostage families whose loved ones are beingness held hostage, and saying to them nosotros don't pay ransom, defies logic." He added that his administration was open about the Jan 2016 payment, saying, "We announced these payments in January. Many months ago. They were not a hole-and-corner. It wasn't a secret. We were completely open with everybody about it."[half-dozen] However, The Wall Street Journal disputed Obama's claims, writing that although he said the dispute from 1979 was resolved, he did non disclose the $400 million cash payment.[4]
Details of full payment
On August 24, 2016, Country Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters that the Obama administration paid $1.3 billion in interest to Iran on Jan 19, 2016, two days after the assistants sent the initial $400 million in cash to Tehran in an unmarked cargo aeroplane. Trudeau said that she "couldn't say more about the January. xix payments because of diplomatic sensitivities." The administration and Iran agreed that $i.iii billion would cover interest on the $400 million.[7]
The Associated Press reported that the administration sent "xiii split up payments of $99,999,999.99 and final payment of well-nigh $10 million. In that location was no explanation for the Treasury Section keeping the individual transactions under $100 1000000." The money came from the "so-called Judgment Fund," which "is taxpayer money Congress has permanently approved in the outcome it's needed, allowing the president to bypass direct congressional approval to make a settlement."[seven]
On September half-dozen, 2016, congressional officials who were briefed well-nigh the timeline and method of payment told The Wall Street Periodical that the Obama assistants sent the 2d payment to Iran on January 22, 2016, and the third payment on Feb 5, 2016. The payments were made in Swiss francs, euros, and other currencies and flown to Geneva, Switzerland, where they were picked up past Iranian cargo planes.[5]
Treasury spokeswoman Dawn Selak explained that the payments were made in Swiss francs, euros, and other currencies because of sanctions placed on Iran. She said, "The class of those master and interest payments—made in non-U.S. currency, in cash—was necessitated by the effectiveness of U.S. and international sanctions regimes over the final several years in isolating Iran from the international financial organisation."[5]
House hearing on Iran payments
On September 8, 2016, the Business firm Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing to examine why the Obama assistants paid Islamic republic of iran $1.7 billion in greenbacks.[8]
During the hearing Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the commission's chairman, said, "Cash is the currency of terrorism. We paid cash to the world's foremost sponsor of terrorism. And the question is, again, why was that done?"[9]
Paul Ahern, a Treasury Section lawyer, replied that cash was "the most reliable way to ensure that they received the payments in a timely manner." He also said that cash was preferred past the banks involved in the transaction.[9]
Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) said Republicans had three goals for the hearing: "to trash the Obama administration, to trash the Iran nuclear deal, and to somehow make them (the administration) look like criminals dropping money in the heart of the night like drug dealers."[10]
Referring to Capuano's comments, Hensarling said, "Information technology is clear that perhaps the Obama administration and certain Democratic members of the House are the only people in America who believe that ransom was non paid."[10]
Democrats on the commission argued that the hearing was a concerted effort by Republicans to discredit President Obama. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said, "I am concerned that this may be a role of the strategy that is being employed by my colleagues on the opposite side of alley to discredit the president of the The states."[xi] Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) led a Democratic walkout during the hearing. Dark-green said, "This is almost micro-managing the presidency or, more specifically, about micro-managing President Barack Obama."[10]
Republican response
- On September 7, 2016, Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) introduced Hr 5931—the Prohibiting Hereafter Ransom Payments to Iran Act. Co-ordinate to Breitbart, the legislation "has three principal objectives: Information technology makes clear that the Obama Administration violated longstanding U.Southward. policy by releasing prisoners and paying ransom for the return of Americans held hostage by Iran; it prohibits cash payments to Iran—period; and it demands transparency in futurity settlements to ensure they are non apply."[12]
- On September 6, 2016, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced South 3285—the No Ransom Payments Human activity of 2016—to forbid the Treasury Department from sending payments to Iran until the $1.7 billion is returned. Rubio wrote in an op-ed, "I opposed the nuclear deal with Iran and have fought this administration'due south endless concessions to the earth's foremost state sponsor of terror. At present I'yard fighting this outrageous bribe payment by introducing legislation today chosen the No Ransom Payments Deed. My bill would forbid whatsoever future ransom payments for hostages. Information technology would crave Islamic republic of iran to render the $1.7 billion information technology received from the Obama administration, and it would prevent any future settlements of Iranian claims until Iran get-go pays the more than $55 billion awarded by U.S. courts to American victims of Iranian-backed terror, and to the Americans held hostage by Islamic republic of iran in 1979. The beak would also mandate sanctions against Iranians who hold or detain U.S. citizens."[13] [14]
- On September half-dozen, 2016, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) criticized the Obama administration for its decision to pay Iran in cash. Cotton said in a statement, "If this report is confirmed, Americans will face the reality that they live in a globe where Islamic republic of iran's terrorist proxies have admission to $1.3 billion more in untraceable cash, on top of the $400 million greenbacks payment the assistants has already confirmed. It's no wonder that the administration has fought and then hard to keep the nature and timing of the cash transfers secret. The payment of greenbacks ransoms to the world's worst country sponsor of terror encourages the hostage-taking of more innocent Americans and fuels Iran's terror plots. It's long by time for the president to stop stonewalling on these ransom payments and start beingness directly with the American people most the dangerous concessions he's fabricated to the ayatollahs."[15]
- On Baronial 22, 2016, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to explain the details of the $400 million payment to Iran. He specifically asked to see the "quarterly financial records for the strange military sales account at the heart of a decades-onetime arms sale dispute between the U.S. and Iranian governments," according to The Colina. Blunt wrote, "While your agency continues to deny it fabricated a ransom payment to secure the release of American hostages, the facts clearly propose otherwise. Your apparent dishonesty regarding the timing of the settlement has consequently cast serious doubt on the answers you provided regarding the source of funds that were used to pay off the Iranian regime. ... Given your other misleading statements, I have serious concerns that the $400 million you provided in hard currency to a terrorist regime will likewise come up out of U.South. taxpayers' pockets."[sixteen]
- On August 12, 2016, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking them to explain the circumstances surrounding the $400 million greenbacks payment. Cruz and Lee wrote, "The unusual circumstances surrounding the assistants's payment of $400 million to the Authorities of the Islamic Democracy of Islamic republic of iran have raised serious concerns non but about the propriety of the transaction, but most its legality as well. … If the assistants violated the constabulary, so Congress and the American people should be made aware of it and then that they can hold the appropriate officials accountable and have whatever steps necessary to strengthen the police force and forbid whatsoever reoccurrence."[17]
- On Baronial nine, 2016, Republican Sens. Marker Kirk (Ill.), David Perdue (Ga.), and Johnny Isakson (Ga.) sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking for details about the $400 meg cash payment. The senators wrote, "We question the timing — concurrent with the release of five American hostages — every bit well equally the method and lack of disclosure of the payment. We are concerned that this payment, along with the swap for seven Iranian prisoners detained in the U.South., has and will go on to encourage further earnest-taking of Americans by Iran." Co-ordinate to The Hill, the senators asked Kerry to explain how the payment "was shipped, why more information was non given to lawmakers, and why the administration agreed to make the payment when Tehran nevertheless owes Americans money. They also desire to know whether the payment was linked to the release of the American hostages, whether the coin volition be used to back up terrorism, and whether administration violated sanctions by making the payment."[18]
- On Baronial 5, 2016, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney Full general Loretta Lynch requesting information almost the Department of Justice's (DOJ) role in a $400 million cash payment the U.s.a. made to Iran in January 2016. Grassley wrote, "These reports are especially troubling in lite of the Section's standing failure to cooperate with my inquiry into the FBI's alleged role in facilitating ransom payments to terrorist groups." Citing the The Wall Street Journal commodity and an article from 2015 that said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provided guidance to a hostage held past al-Qaeda, Grassley added, "[T]here are serious questions about this administration'southward policies regarding paying ransoms to terrorists and state-sponsors of terrorism."[19] [xx]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "U.S. withheld cash until hostages were released"
Encounter likewise
- Iran nuclear understanding: An overview
- Islamic republic of iran nuclear understanding: Articulation Comprehensive Plan of Action
- Islamic republic of iran nuclear agreement:Negotiations
- Iran nuclear agreement: Timeline
- Iran nuclear agreement: Legislation
- Iran nuclear agreement: Congressional review
- 2016 presidential candidates on the Iran nuclear deal
- Iran nuclear agreement: U.S.-Israeli relations
- Iran nuclear agreement: Public opinion
- Outline for nuclear agreement with Iran reached
- Islamic republic of iran nuclear agreement talks resume ahead of deadline
- John Kerry
- Barack Obama
- P5+1 and E3+3
External links
- "Parameters for a Articulation Comprehensive Plan of Activity Regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran's Nuclear Programme"
- International Atomic Free energy Bureau (IAEA)
Footnotes
- ↑ one.0 1.1 The Wall Street Journal, "U.S. Held Cash Until Iran Freed Prisoners," accessed August 18, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.one 2.2 The Wall Street Journal, "Iran Releases Americans in Prisoner Bandy," accessed August eighteen, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "State Dept. confirms $400 million Islamic republic of iran payment conditioned on hostage release," accessed August 18, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.ii 4.iii The Wall Street Journal, "U.Southward. Sent Cash to Iran as Americans Were Freed," accessed August three, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 five.1 5.2 The Wall Street Periodical, "U.S. Transferred $i.three Billion More than in Cash to Iran After Initial Payment," accessed September seven, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "Obama on Islamic republic of iran payment: 'We do not pay bribe,'" accessed August 4, 2016
- ↑ seven.0 7.1 San Francisco Gate, "two days after cash delivery, United states paid $ane.3 billion to Iran," accessed August 26, 2016
- ↑ FinancialServices.House.gov, "Subcommittee Investigates Dangers of Ransom Payments to Iran," accessed September 19, 2016
- ↑ nine.0 9.1 The Dallas Forenoon News, "Republicans demand to know: Why was Islamic republic of iran payment in cash?" accessed September 19, 2016
- ↑ x.0 10.1 10.ii USA Today, "Republican congressman says U.S. payment to Iran was like a 'drug drop,'" accessed September 19, 2016
- ↑ The Hill, "House GOP: White Business firm paid Islamic republic of iran ransom for prisoners," accessed September nine, 2016
- ↑ Breitbart, "Rep. Ed Royce Seeks to Block Cash Ransoms to Iran," accessed September 9, 2016
- ↑ Tampa Bay Times, "Rubio: Ban bribe payments for hostages," accessed September 8, 2016
- ↑ The Loma, "Senate GOP introduces beak demanding return of 'ransom' from Iran," accessed September seven, 2016
- ↑ The Colina, "Cotton fiber: Iran payments offer terrorists 'untraceable cash,'" accessed September 7, 2016
- ↑ The Hill, "Top Republican presses Kerry for Islamic republic of iran 'ransom' details," accessed September 19, 2016
- ↑ The Hill, "Cruz, Lee question legality of Iran payment," accessed August 12, 2016
- ↑ The Loma, "GOP senators push button Kerry on Iran payment," accessed August 9, 2016
- ↑ The Hill, "Grassley pushes Lynch for Islamic republic of iran payment details," accessed August five, 2016
- ↑ The Wall Street Journal, "Justice Department Officials Raised Objections on U.S. Cash Payment to Islamic republic of iran," accessed Baronial 3, 2016
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