Saturday, Apr 20, 2024 | Last Update : 02:50 PM IST
$400 million to Iran not ransom: Barack Obama
US President Barack Obama has said that the $400 million given to Iran was not a ransom for the release of four American prisoners, saying the whole amount was given in cash as they do not have a bank
US President Barack Obama has said that the $400 million given to Iran was not a ransom for the release of four American prisoners, saying the whole amount was given in cash as they do not have a banking relationship with the country.
“The reason that we had to give them cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran, we couldn’t send them a check and we could not wire the money,” Mr Obama told reporters at a Pentagon news conference on Thursday.
Responding to a report in the Wall Street Journal, claiming that the US transferred a plane loaded with hard cash amounting to $400 million to Tehran coinciding with the release of four American prisoners by Iran in January, Mr Obama questioned the justification of writing such a story.
“It is not at all clear to me why it is that cash, as opposed to a check or a wire transfer has made this into a new story. Maybe because it kind of feels like some kind of spy novel or you know crime novel because cash was exchanged,” he said.
After the story was reported early this week, the White House has been defending the decision as the Opposition Republican party and the Trump campaign has made it an election issue and alleging that it was a ransom paid to the Iranians.
“This wasn’t some nefarious deal. And at the time, we explained that Iran had pressed a claim before an international tribunal about them recovering money of theirs that we had frozen,” Mr Obama said. However, the Trump campaign has alleged that the US government is engaged in a “cover-up” of its Iranian cash deal.
“The Obama Administration is now engaged in a cover-up of their fly-by-night untraceable cash airlift to Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” Stephen Miller, senior policy adviser from the Trump campaign alleged.
“President Obama’s refusal to acknowledge that these funds will end up being used to subsidise terror is shameful — and Hillary Clinton’s support for the President’s actions are a national disgrace,” he said.
