House Republicans press administration on Iran payment

The settlement resulted from a legal arbitration under way in the Netherlands since the early 1980s between the USA and Iran.

To hear Republicans in Congress tell it, President Barack Obama trampled all over precedent and the Constitution with his $1.7 billion cash payout to Iran.

Republican lawmakers are seeking to halt any future “ransom” payments to Iran, introducing legislation created to tie administrations’ hands in future dealings with the regime and, in one case, to secure the return of $1.7 billion handed over to the Iranians earlier this year.

The Oklahoma Republican will send a letter to the president Thursday, noting that Obama “promised transparency” when he took over the White House.

“The witnesses today only agreed under threat of subpoena” to appear before Congress, Duffy said.

They added the United States could have owed more money in interest payments on the $1.7 billion settlement in a decades-old dispute, but they negotiated a better deal. He asked the witnesses if they could guarantee that the money will not fund terrorism.

“The total now stands at $1.7 billion that this Administration has handed over to Iran – the world’s most notorious financier of global terrorism and mass murder”. The first, consisting of $400 million, was sent on January 17, 2016.

The $1.3 billion came out of the Judgment Fund, which is fueled by taxpayer dollars, run by the Treasury Department, and “used to pay for certain court judgments and settlements against the federal government”.

The remaining $1.3 billion was withdrawn from a USA taxpayer fund operated by the Treasury Department and sent to Europe. The original sum was converted into non-US currencies by the Swiss and Dutch central banks, the report said.

Information about the payment and the circumstances surrounding it remains a mystery. At issue was a $400 million payment Tehran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, made to a Pentagon trust fund just months before his government was toppled.

Lankford wants to know what changes to the deal’s guidelines were made, if any other exemptions for Iran are being considered and why the changes were “kept hidden from the American people”. It’s expected that Iran will spread that cash among its surrogates like the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezb’allah, the Lebanese terrorist group fighting with Russian Federation in Syria to bolster the Assad regime. Such a decision would have made them liable for much more money.

“The American people deserve answers”.

“There will be limitations to what I and my colleagues can say in an open setting”, he explained.

Officials from the departments of Treasury, State and Justice are testifying before an investigation subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee. Quoting a spokesman from the State Department who admitted that “we took advantage of leverage that we felt we could have” in timing the payment with the hostages’ release, Rubio called on Congress to act.

Democrats argue that the use of cash justified necessary because of Iran’s non-existent position in the banking world. “I believe this settlement was the best thing for the United States”.