Obama administration admits paying $1.7 billion to Iran
The Obama administration admitted to lawmakers this week that an additional $1.3 billion was transferred to Iran apart from the initial payment of $400 million on Jan. 17. The $1.3 billion in cash was reportedly delivered via planes in two installments on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5.
The government previously said the initial payment of $400 million was part of a deal to return the amount paid by the former Shah of Iran to the Pentagon. Iran supposedly bought airplane parts from the U.S. in the 1970s but the Pentagon failed to deliver them.
Officials of the Obama administration reportedly feared that a tribunal in the Hague could rule in favor of Iran and order the U.S. to pay $4 billion or more. To avoid the ruling, the U.S. government negotiated with Iran to pay $400 million plus the interest of $1.3 billion.
Last month, Obama held a press conference denying that the payments were ransom for four American prisoners that included Pastor Saeed Abedini.
"We do not pay ransom for hostages. We've got a number of Americans being held around the world and I meet with their families and it's heartbreaking," the president said. "But those families know that we have a policy that we don't pay ransom," he added.
Later that month, State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted that they delayed the payment of $400 million until the American prisoners were freed. Kirby, however, claimed that the U.S. government was only taking advantage of the "leverage."
Rep. Ed Royce of California insisted that the payment was ransom. "We now know it was ransom. And on top of that it put more American lives at risk. And we've emboldened Iran," Royce said.
On Tuesday, Royce and Sen. Marco Rubio introduced the No Ransom Payments Act to prevent the U.S. government from making anymore similar payments and to try to recover the $1.7 billion from Iran.
"President Obama's disastrous nuclear deal with Iran was sweetened with an illicit ransom payment and billions of dollars for the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism," Rubio said in a statement.
