© BBCAlleged photo of the original $400 million cash payment to Iran.
The cash payments were once again made in foreign currencies, mostly Swiss francs, euros, and settled a decades-old dispute over a failed arms deal dating back to 1979. U.S. officials have acknowledged the payment of the first $400 million coincided with Iran's release of American prisoners and was used as leverage to ensure they were flown out of Tehran's Mehrabad on the morning of Jan. 17. The White Housee has yet to comment if the incremental $1.3 billion was also part of a ransom payment prearranged with Iran.
According to the WSJ, the Obama administration briefed lawmakers on Tuesday when it told them that two further portions of the $1.3 billion were transferred though Europe on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5. The payment "flowed in the same manner" as the original $400 million that an Iranian cargo plane picked up in Geneva, Switzerland, according to a congressional aide who took part in the briefing. The paper also notes that the original $400 million was converted into non-U.S. currencies by the Swiss and Dutch central banks. The Treasury Department confirmed late Tuesday that the subsequent payments were also made in cash.
"The form of those principal and interest payments—made in non-U.S. currency, in cash—was necessitated by the effectiveness of U.S. and international sanctions regimes over the last several years in isolating Iran from the international financial system," Treasury spokeswoman Dawn Selak said.
The Obama administration had previously refused to disclose the mechanics of the $1.7 billion settlement, despite repeated calls from U.S. lawmakers. The State Department announced the settlement on Jan. 17 but didn't brief Congress that the entire amount had been paid in cash. Lawmakers have voiced concern that Iran's military units, particularly the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, would use the cash to finance military allies in the Middle East, including the Assad regime in Syria, Houthi militias in Yemen, and the Lebanese militia, Hezbollah.
The cash payments also effectively circumvented the US' own financial sanctions imposed on Iran previously, which have yet to be fully unwound. Obama has justified his payment by claiming it was owed to Iran from a previous dispute, and engaging in litigation would result in costly interest payments:
The settlement resulted from a legal arbitration under way in the Netherlands since the early 1980s between the U.S. and Iran. At issue was a $400 million payment Tehran's last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, made to a Pentagon trust fund just months before his government was toppled. The money was earmarked for airplane parts that were never delivered.The latest revelations come as Congress returns from a summer recess with Republicans vowing to pursue charges that the White House paid ransom to Tehran, a charge President Barack Obama has repeatedly rejected. Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) introduced legislation on Tuesday that would bar such payments to Iran in the future and seeks to reclaim the $1.7 billion for victims of Iranian-backed terrorism. The bill introduced by congressional Republicans on Tuesday would block the Treasury Department from making any payments to Iran until Tehran returns the $1.7 billion to the U.S. and pays the American terrorism victims. Three dual U.S.-Iranian citizens are still being held in Iran.
Obama administration officials have said they believed the U.S. was set to lose the court proceedings in The Hague and would end up being liable for as much as $10 billion because of accrued interest. Republican lawmakers have argued the initial $400 million shouldn't be repaid to Iran and instead should have been used to compensate the victims of Iranian-backed terrorism.
"The U.S. government should not be in the business of negotiating with terrorists and paying ransom money in exchange for the release of American hostages," Mr. Rubio said.
Meanwhile, Iran military vessels, empowered by Obama's appeasement of the Iranian regime, have now engaged in numerous "harassing" close-encounters involving US ships in the Persian Gulf, the latest of which took place yesterday.
wherein almost nothing is mentioned of the real specifics of said money. Oh, yes, it mentions it was related to unfulfilled military purchases. How or why I guess is not important, only that Iran will do terrible things with it...you know, like build infrastructure and buy European products(Europe is already lining up). There is also the veiled insinuation that the $1.3b, paid in addition to the original $400m, was undisclosed ransom money. Forget the fact that this was a settlement reached and announced back in 2015. Idiot Rubio says give it to Iranian terror victims. Right. How about those tables be turned around and US and Israel be forced to pay for their atrocities. Just more BS from corrupt 'exceptional' scum repeating the same old tired refrain, pimping for Zionists and their eternal war. Not mentioned here (and a lot of other places) is that the 'hostages'(as we refer to them) were part of a prisoner swap...5 Americans suspected of espionage for 7 Iranians convicted of sanction violations . But let there be no doubt, this was their money which the US unilaterally illegally stole 37 years ago. In arbitration meetings Iran was demanding $10b, US lawyers figured we would end up paying at least $3.5-6 billion if a judgement was handed down. Obama ended up paying $1.7, avoiding a judgement. Whatever happened to the appeal Saudi has made to avoid 9/11 suits? How many years has CONgress kicked this can around? Oh, yeah, they gave people the right to sue finally, but Zionist Schumer came to ally KSAs' aid with an addition to JASTA that gives the government the ability to delay indefinitely any judgement, let alone settlement . But they can unilaterally do it to Iran at will. Lets not forget there was the whole phony Iran 9/11 judgement, basically by saying that Shia Iran supported arch-enemy Israeli/US/Saudi Sunni run terrorist groups. Nothing smells here, huh?