Was $400 million in cash paid by US to Iran a form of ransom?
The first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement paid by the United States to Iran was paid in bundles of foreign currencies, says a new report.
The first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement paid by the United States to Iran was paid in bundles of foreign currencies, says a new report.
The Obama administration secretly airlifted $400 million in foreign currencies to Iran in January, transporting the cash on an unmarked cargo plane, says a new report from The Wall Street Journal.
That payment was the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement paid by the United States to Iran to end a 35-year-old legal dispute over US arms bought by the Iranian shah, which were never delivered after the 1979 revolution. The White House has framed the settlement as a victory, citing widespread expectations that the US would lose its claim in international arbitration court, potentially making it liable for a much bigger sum.聽
But the cash payment also coincided with the January release of five Americans held prisoner by Tehran, awakening renewed accusations that the Obama administration paid what amounted to ransom聽in exchange for the prisoners.
鈥淭his break with longstanding U.S. policy put a price on the head of Americans, and has led Iran to continue its illegal seizures,鈥� Sen. Tom Cotton (R) of Arkansas, a prominent opponent of the Iran deal, told the Journal, calling the payment 鈥渁聽$1.7 billion ransom to the ayatollahs for U.S. hostages.鈥�
Critics have also voiced concerns that the $400 million from the US could be used to shore up the Iranian military and聽subsidize the Assad regime鈥檚 war in Syria, reports the Journal.聽
But聽John Brennan,聽director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said last week that there was evidence that Iran is pouring financial resources into development projects. 鈥淭he money, the revenue that鈥檚 flowing into Iran is being used to support its currency, to provide moneys to the departments and agencies, build up its infrastructure,鈥� Mr. Brennan said at a conference in Aspen, Colo., the Journal reports.
Obama administration officials reject the idea that the prisoners鈥� release was the direct result of the cash payment, with State Department spokesman John Kirby telling the Journal that settlement negotiations and discussions over the prisoners were 鈥渃ompletely separate.鈥�
鈥淣ot only were the two negotiations separate, they were conducted by different teams on each side, including, in the case of The Hague claims, by technical experts involved in these negotiations for many years,鈥� Mr. Kirby said.
An Iranian-American man visiting his ailing mother in Iran was arrested last week,聽one of several arrests targeting Iranian-Americans and other dual nationals. The detentions are likely the work of the most conservative members of Iran鈥檚 government, such as the intelligence and security apparatuses, as 海角大神 reported.聽
鈥淥ne explanation for the detentions is that they are a way to embarrass [President Hassan] Rouhani and perhaps even to scuttle the nuclear deal by souring budding relations with Western powers,鈥� the聽Monitor reported last week.
鈥淥thers say the detentions might also be aimed at extracting economic concessions, with some in Iran disappointed by the economic returns from the nuclear deal.鈥�
Bijan Khajehpour, an exiled Iranian business consultant who was held in Iran鈥檚 Evin prison for three months after Iran鈥檚 disputed 2009 elections, told the Monitor that Iran was seeking to send a message: 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 ignore us, you cannot eliminate us from the power structure 鈥� and you have to deal with us.鈥�
鈥淭his is all happening in the context of intense competition for power in a completely new political environment,鈥� he said.