State Dep’t: $400 million to Iran was for old settlement, not release of hostages
Conservatives are claiming the White House paid $400 million to Iran to release four detained Americans, but the administration says they are separate issues.
Click here for reuse options!The money represented the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a decades-old dispute over a failed arms deal signed just before the 1979 fall of Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The settlement, which resolved claims before an international tribunal in The Hague, also coincided with the formal implementation that same weekend of the landmark nuclear agreement reached between Tehran, the U.S. and other global powers the summer before.
“With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well,” President Barack Obama said at the White House on Jan. 17 — without disclosing the $400 million cash payment.
Senior U.S. officials denied any link between the payment and the prisoner exchange. They say the way the various strands came together simultaneously was coincidental, not the result of any quid pro quo.
“As we’ve made clear, the negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim…were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home,” State Department spokesman John Kirby [pictured] said. “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.”
But U.S. officials also acknowledge that Iranian negotiators on the prisoner exchange said they wanted the cash to show they had gained something tangible.
Copyright 2016 Liberaland
10 responses to State Dep’t: $400 million to Iran was for old settlement, not release of hostages
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Alan August 3rd, 2016 at 09:36
Conservatives are buying the Iran spin that they got this money in return for hostages. When it suits their narrative, they view Iran as truthful.
The Original Just Me August 3rd, 2016 at 12:31
Good Comment.
Mensa Member August 3rd, 2016 at 13:39
I just wish he would comment more.
We love you Alan! Join us.
Hirightnow August 3rd, 2016 at 14:18
But…but…don’t all Muslims lie to infidels? I seem to recall some bespectacled gentleman on some website (the name of the place escapes me…) talking to an older blonde-haired woman just the other day, and she repeatedly stated this very thing!
Robert M. Snyder August 4th, 2016 at 10:19
Alan, if you don’t think this is one hell of a coincidence, then you have no more objectivity than the people who blindly put their faith in Jim and Tammy Bakker.
labman57 August 3rd, 2016 at 10:57
Donald immediately blurted out “Scandal!”
Cuz details hurt his brain.
Trump’s knee-jerk response is exactly why he is ill-suited to serve as President.
The Original Just Me August 3rd, 2016 at 12:30
” SCANDAL ! ” the Battle Cry of the Tea Party/Trump/Republicans.
The Original Just Me August 3rd, 2016 at 12:29
It doesn’t matter what the money was for. The Tea Party/Trump Idiots will twist it some how to look bad. Shall we mention Iran/Contra dealings under ” GOD REAGAN ” ?
Mensa Member August 3rd, 2016 at 13:38
Americans who don’t live in the Fox Fact-Free Bubble know we are just returning Iran’s own money.
We were holding it as a negotiating tool.
Iran negotiated. We stopped holding it.
This is not rocket science.
amersham1046 August 3rd, 2016 at 19:18
But some of the detractors are still using pop-gun science