United States denies $400 million paid to Iran was ransom

The US State Department on Thursday said that a $400 million cash payment to Iran was used as “leverage” to secure the release in January of four American prisoners held by Tehran, as negotiations for the implementation of last year’s nuclear deal were being settled.

The cargo plane that was used to fly the cash payment from Geneva to Iran belonged to Iran Air, which was designated as a terrorist entity by the Treasury Department in 2011 for being used by Iran to transport military-related equipment, including rockets and missiles. -Iranian prisoner exchange on the same day.

Republicans said the statement was an admission that the $400 million payment was, in fact, a ransom.

President Barack Obama first announced the settlement back in January, but Kirby said he could not comment about why Obama didn’t explain the decision about the money’s release back when it happened.

“This wasn’t some nefarious deal”, Obama said during an August 4 press conference.

Considering this administration has lied to us before, namely Benghazi, why should we trust it when it says this was “just leverage”.

“The president owes the American people a full accounting of his actions and the risky precedent he has set”, said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. The payment was part of a decades-old dispute over a failed military equipment deal dating to the 1970s, before the Islamic revolution in 1979. US officials have said they expected an imminent ruling on the claim and settled with Tehran instead.

Another of the other prisoners, pastor Saeed Abedini, also had linked the two events. The the two senior administration officials on the call demanded anonymity.

“There are arguments by some analysts that downplay the transfer as a ransom payment because this was money owed to Iran in principle and interest”, Amir Toumaj, an Iran expert at the Washington, DC-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Business Insider earlier this month.

The first installment of that payment came in a $400 million cash delivery made up of euros and Swiss francs.

But he said the US withheld the delivery of the cash as leverage until Iran permitted the Americans to leave the country. As a result, the USA opted to settle with Iran. The funds had been deposited in the USA to pay for a shipment of American fighter jets, which never went through.

There are still outstanding Tribunal claims, mostly by Iran against the U.S. We will continue efforts to address these claims appropriately.

The prisoner release and cash transfer occurred January 17, fueling suspicions from Republican lawmakers and accusations from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump of a quid pro quo that undermined America’s longstanding opposition to ransom payments.

“But to me, the real scandal is the Iran deal itself”, he continued.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday that the cash payment was held up until the American prisoners took off in their plane out of Tehran. Since, as Kirby said yesterday, we wouldn’t give Iran the money unless the prisoners were released, the money was paid in order to free them. But he says the US withheld delivery of the cash as leverage until the USA citizens had left Iran.

“It would have been foolish, imprudent and irresponsible for us not to try and maintain maximum leverage”, he said, according to ABC News.

The explanation is also unlikely to stem the flood of Republican criticism for the changing narrative.