The White House on Wednesday denied
insinuations that a $400 million cash payment to Iran in January was a ransom
to free four Americans that were being held in Tehran, saying that it was just
coincidental.
The US State Department said the money
was actually part of a $1.7 billion settlement to Iran for a decade-long legal
dispute that was before an international tribunal in The Hague.
State Department spokesman John Kirby
said:
"As we've made clear, the
negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim at the Hague Tribunal
were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American
citizens home," Kirby said in a statement. "Not 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."
The State Department formally announced
the settlement terms on Jan. 17 which was a day after the four Americans were
freed. The four Americans were identified as Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post
reporter who had been convicted of espionage last year; Amir Hekmati, a former
Marine who had been held since 2011; Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor
imprisoned since 2012; and a man only named as Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari.
Their release and the settlement deal
also came on the same weekend that international sanctions on Iran were lifted
after the United Nations nuclear agency declared Tehran had fulfilled its
commitment to scale back its nuclear program.
Secretary of State John Kerry at the time
said the nuclear agreement between Iran and the West and the Americans' release
"were not directly related," although he believed the diplomatic
process was eased thanks to the nuclear talks.
A Wall Street Journal report Tuesday
characterized the Obama administration's $400 million payment to Iran as a
"secretly organized" airlift of euros, Swiss francs and other
currencies given to Tehran.
It remains illegal for the U.S. to
conduct a monetary transaction with Iran in American dollars.
The money was owed to the Islamic
republic following a failed arms deal dating back to 1979, when Iran purchased
American fighter jets, U.S. officials said.
Representative Jason Chaffetz, the
chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, on Wednesday sent
a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to appear at a future
committee hearing to discuss the payment.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest also
denied the suggestions that the money transfer to Iran was ransom or a secret.
He said:
"The United States, under President
Obama, has not paid a ransom to secure the release of Americans unjustly
detained in Iran and we're not going to pay a ransom," he said that in
response to a Wall Street Journal article that said Washington secretly
organized the cash airlift.
Source: NBC News
Follow Solenzo Blog on
0 Comments