State Department Confirms $400 million payment to Iran was contingent on release of prisoners
Despite Obama’s statement earlier this month that “we do not pay ransom for hostages,” it is growing more and more apparent that we do. The State Department conceded today that the Islamic Republic of Iran was paid $400,000,000 to secure the release of four Americans.
Obama has repeatedly denied that the Administration made a ransom payment, but in the face of mounting evidence, that assertion has become harder and harder to believe. And this afternoon, State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted that the cash payment to Iran was contingent on their release of the Americans. While Kirby continues to maintain that the payments were a separately negotiated issue (and that the withholding was merely “leverage”), his admission presents the another large crack in the Administration’s version of events.
Kirby’s statement also contradicts his earlier claim that “[r]eports of link between prisoner release & payment to Iran are completely false.” Kirby made that statement last month, when news of the $400,000,000 payment first came to light. Yesterday, however, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. officials would only allow Iran to access the cash after it was confirmed that the Americans were in the air. That report made further denials of any connection between the cash payment and the release of the prisoners impossible to ignore.
The Administration’s claims have also been contradicted by the released prisoners themselves, some of whom have stated that Iranian officials told them that their release dependent on the payment.
The Islamic Republic of Iran openly sponsors terrorism and is actively supporting al-Assad’s murderous Syrian regime in its fight against American-backed rebels. When discussing the billions of dollars the Iranian Government was given as a result of Obama’s nuclear deal, Secretary of State John Kerry conceded that some of that money was likely to fund terrorist activity around the world. That the Obama Administration would pay the Iranians a ransom demonstrates the depths of this Administration’s weakness.
