The Biden administration has just paid Iran a $6 billion ransom in exchange for 5 U.S. hostages being released from prison. That works out to $1.2 billion each. As former State Department official Gabriel Noronha points out, “Three years ago,” an Iranian Revolutionary Guard “Commander said they could balance their budget by getting a billion each for American hostages. Well, Biden just gave Iran $1.2 billion each for five.”
“The United States and Iran have reached an agreement to win the freedom of five imprisoned Americans in exchange for several jailed Iranians and eventual access to about $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue,” reports the New York Times. The five Americans have been released from prison but remain under house arrest in Iran.
The Biden administration’s action drew criticism from several Senators, reports Politico:
Republicans on key foreign policy panels are criticizing an unfolding plan that would release Americans imprisoned in Iran because it involves giving the Islamist regime access to billions of dollars — with one calling it a “ransom.”
Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, shared his reservations Thursday as several Americans were moved from an Iranian prison to hotel or house arrest, a key early step in the deal….
The plan involves Iran releasing five Americans in exchange for the U.S. freeing a handful of imprisoned Iranians…It also includes giving Iran access to some $6 billion in frozen assets via Qatar…
Risch warned that such machinations set a bad precedent.
“While I welcome home wrongfully detained Americans, unfreezing $6B in #Iranian assets dangerously further incentivizes hostage taking & provides a windfall for regime aggression,” Risch tweeted. “The Biden Admin must punish those who use Americans as political pawns and work to end this practice.”
Other Republicans voiced concerns over what Iran could do with the funds. In a statement, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the deal a “ransom” and a “craven act of appeasement,” warning that Iran would “use these ill-gotten gains to attack our troops, fund terrorism, and arm Russia.”
U.S. efforts to negotiate with longtime adversary Iran on anything, especially its nuclear program, are a subject of constant tensions in Washington, largely but not entirely along party lines. Antipathy toward Iran has risen further as it has helped arm Russia in its war against Ukraine….
During Barack Obama’s presidency, the United States negotiated the release of five detained Americans that… involved prisoner exchanges. At the same time, Obama’s team struck a deal with Iran on a separate, decades-old military sales legal dispute. Because the latter involved sending an initial $400 million in cash to Iran just as the prisoners were being released, Republicans slammed it as a ransom that would lead Iran to imprison more Americans.
