Obama denies $400M payment to Iran was ransom

US President Barack Obama on Thursday said that even Israel now acknowledges Iran’s adherence to the worldwide nuclear accord as he staunchly denied that a $400 million payment to Iran earlier this year was ransom for the release of American prisoners.

On Thursday, President Obama said the payment to Iran, which coincided with the release of four Americans held in Tehran, was not a ransom.

Kerry said the payment resolved a longstanding Iranian claim at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal in The Hague, and ultimately saved US taxpayers from paying even more interest. President Obama says that the payment, made in January, was actually part of a deal to resolve a decades-old arms dispute.

The controversy stems from a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday that revealed the United States sent $400 million in euros and Swiss francs to Iran at the same time Iranian officials released four American prisoners.

“Donald Trump, the American people know, is going to provide the kind of leadership that we’re not going to have these kind of moments again on the world stage”, Mr. Pence said.

“President Obama’s refusal to acknowledge that these funds will end up being used to subsidise terror is shameful – and Hillary Clinton’s support for the President’s actions are a national disgrace”, he said.

Officially, no. Obama said precisely that at a news conference the day after the story broke.

Trump reiterated the story at rally in Portland, Maine on Thursday.

Instead, the $400 million was stacked on wooden pallets and flown to Iran on a secretly arranged flight. You know why the tape was given to us? “This wasn’t some nefarious deal”, he told reporters. “You saw that with the airplane coming in – nice plane – the airplane coming in and the money coming off, I guess”.

He hopes the most recent deal with Iran will keep more incidents like this from happening. It’s a military tape.

And while his captors didn’t talk about money-just the plane-Abedini answered in the affirmative as to whether they were “effectively waiting for the money to come in before they then let [him] take off”. “Iran released that tape so that we will be embarrassed”. And they have a flawless tape.

Trump reacted by claiming to have seen a “top secret” video that showed the transfer of money. “It’s now been well over a year since the agreement with Iran to stop its nuclear program was signed, and by all accounts, it has worked exactly the way we said it was going to work”, he said.