Donald Trump and a top House Republican had more criticism for the Obama administration after a late Tuesday report that it paid Iran $1.7 billion in cash to settle a decades-old military transaction that Iran paid for, but which fell through after Iran’s revolution in 1979.
The Obama administration was already under fire for admitting that it paid $400 million in cash to Iran to start the transaction.
The U.S. owed Iran another $1.3 billion under the terms of the settlement, and U.S. officials had refused to explain how that money was paid. But late Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the remaining $1.3 billion was also paid in two cash installments.
Trump’s camp was outraged and said Obama’s actions set a “dangerous” precedent.
“President Obama’s secret $400 million ransom payment to Iran already set an incredibly dangerous precedent, and news that it was followed by two more plane loads of cash only makes this blunder even worse,” said Trump communications adviser Jason Miller.
“Hillary Clinton’s support for President Obama’s approach to Iran, including the deeply flawed nuclear deal she helped spearhead, reflects the same bad judgment that characterized her foreign policy decision-making as secretary of state,” he added. “The United States should not be helping fund the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and Hillary Clinton needs to disavow these secret payments immediately.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., was one of the Republicans who said the payment appeared to be a ransom to ensure the release of four U.S. hostages, and said the larger cash payment makes it worse.
“What on earth was the White House thinking?” he asked Wednesday morning. “Sending the world’s leading state sponsor of terror pallets of untraceable cash isn’t just terrible policy. It’s incredibly reckless, and it only puts bigger targets on the backs of Americans.”
“It’s no wonder that while the administration tried to hide the truth about the payment, Iran seized new American hostages,” he added. “This cash bonanza has emboldened Iran’s radical regime, and undermined America’s national security.”
Royce introduced legislation Tuesday to stop similar cash payments from happening.
“It cannot happen again,” Royce said. “That’s why I’ve introduced legislation to stop more dangerous cash payouts to Iran.”
On MSNBC Wednesday morning, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., added that Obama’s payments to Iran did constitute ransom, regardless of what the administration says.
“Just look it up in Webster’s dictionary, it is ransom,” Corker said.
