President Trump claimed the Obama administration “paid for” the ballistic missiles that Iran used to strike an Iraqi-U.S. coalition military base in western Iraq on Wednesday morning.
“The missiles fired last night at us and our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration,” Trump said in the grand foyer of the White House.
President Barack Obama sent $1.7 billion in cash to Iran to pay for a decades-old arbitration claim that stood between the two nations. Iran agreed to release four American prisoners in exchange for the payment delivered on Jan. 17, 2016.
Sen. Ted Cruz made the same suggestion on Hannity last night, saying: “They literally flew $1.7 billion in cash, in unmarked bills, on pallets in the dead of night into Iran. In a very real sense, the missiles that we saw fired at U.S. servicemen and women tonight were paid for by the billions that the Obama administration flooded the Ayatollah with.”
Trump tweeted “all is well,” hours after dozens of ballistic missiles struck the Ain al Asad air base in western Iraq. No U.S. casualties were reported after the attacks.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to seek “revenge” for the deaths of top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, who were killed in an airstrike ordered by Trump days after the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was surrounded and set aflame by Iranian-backed militants chanting “death to America.”
Iran took responsibility for the attacks in a statement that read: “The brave soldiers of [the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] aerospace unit have launched a successful attack with tens of ballistic missiles on Al Assad military base in the name of martyr Gen. Qassem Soleimani.”
