Ted Cruz has officially filed to have the federal government recoup the losses for a drone shot down by the Iranian government by extracting the drone’s value in cash from Iran’s frozen assets.
“Yesterday I filed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that begins process forcing #Iran to pay for the U.S. drone they shot down, using frozen Iranian funds,” the Texas Republican senator tweeted.
Yesterday I filed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that begins process forcing #Iran to pay for the U.S. drone they shot down, using frozen Iranian funds. #FY20NDAA #NDAA –> pic.twitter.com/AuUYl6ZonZ
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) June 25, 2019
The RQ-4A Global Hawk High-Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aircraft drone, valued at approximately $130 million, was shot down after the Iranian government said it left international waters and entered Iran’s airspace. The U.S. disagreed, with President Trump saying that it was “all documented” that the drone did not leave international airspace. The two governments both released footage of the attack.
The U.S. froze approximately $100 billion in Iranian assets held in international accounts following the Iranian Revolution of 1979. A recent bipartisan bill introduced into Congress would distribute almost $2 billion of that to the families of Americans killed in the Beirut bombing of 1983, perpetrated by what would later become Hezbollah, which was backed by the Iranian government.
