US$400 million cash payment to Iran was ‘leverage’ not ‘ransom’, says State Department
The money flown to Iran was the first instalment in a US$1.7 billion settlement, part of a long-standing dispute over an arms deal that fell through when the shah was overthrown in 1979
The United States State Department acknowledged on Thursday that it delayed releasing a US$400 million cash payment to Iran in January until it was assured that a plane carrying three released American prisoners had left Tehran.
State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters that negotiators had “deliberately leveraged”
Iran’s desire to get its money from a decades-old arms deal to make sure the authorities there would not renege on freeing three Americans. They were flown out January 16, the same day the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers was implemented.
We felt it would be imprudent not to consider that some leverage in trying make sure our Americans got out
“We felt it would be imprudent not to consider that some leverage in trying make sure our Americans got out,” Kirby said, noting the deep mistrust between the countries.
Kirby’s remarks marked the first time the administration has acknowledged there was any degree of linkage between separate negotiations for the release of five Americans, including two who left Iran independently, and money paid to Iran in foreign currency piled onto pallets aboard an Iran Air cargo plane in Geneva.
Kirby insisted, however, that there was no quid pro quo of money for prisoners.
“We don’t pay ransom,” he said. Rather, he added, “there were opportunities we took advantage of, and as a result we got American citizens back home.”
Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies and a critic of the deal, called the State Department’s admission “the very definition of ransom.”