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HomeNEWSIRAN NEWS$1.7 billion settlement a "ransom" to get Americans back from Iranian captivity

$1.7 billion settlement a “ransom” to get Americans back from Iranian captivity

The Hill, 19 JAN 2016 – The White House is denying that the $1.7 billion sent to Iran to settle an outstanding claim this weekend was in any way tied to the release of five American prisoners.
GOP critics of the payment are “wrong” to indicate that the payment amounts to “ransom,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said on Tuesday.
In addition to the implementation of the international nuclear accord and a prisoner swap to secure the release of five Americans, the Obama administration also sent Iran $1.7 billion of unsettled account. 
Roughly $400 million had been sitting in “an escrow account” since the Iranian revolution in 1979, Josh Earnest said on Tuesday.
On Sunday, the U.S. paid that money, as well as $1.3 billion in interest.
The payment is separate from the roughly $100 billion that Iran receives from the lifting of sanctions, about half of which has already been earmarked for other uses. 
Critics of the nuclear agreement and the administration’s engagement with Iran accuse the White House of emboldening Tehran by flooding its economy with cash.
On Monday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) called the $1.7 billion settlement “an astonishing figure.”
“This was a stand-alone agreement that didn’t have to be undertaken, unless it’s just part of the ransom that we had to pay to get innocent Americans back from Iranian captivity,” Cotton said on CNN.


 

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