The State Department insisted Wednesday that Iran isn’t using any of the billions of dollars freed up under the Iran nuclear agreement to fund terrorism, even though it admitted it can’t really be sure.
Iran was expected to claim about $100 billion in money that was unfrozen once the nuclear deal took effect, and also received another $1.7 billion in cash under a settlement for a military deal with the U.S. that was never finalized.
When asked Wednesday whether the U.S. can say for sure where the money is going, department spokesman Mark Toner agreed that he can’t.
“No, ah, not categorically,” he said. “We believe, it’s our assessment, again, without being able to say 100 percent that it’s the case, that the money that was returned to Iran as part of the settlement has gone primarily to bolster the economy, which has been in many senses debilitated by years of sanctions.”
“Again, that’s our assessment.”
But Toner admitted he can’t “categorically” say that some of the money isn’t going to the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, or other groups that promote terrorist activities.
“By saying that we can’t categorically saying 100 percent the money’s gone to bolster the economy or for economic reasons, I can’t categorically rule out that it’s gone to the IRGC or other groups,” he said.
Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken responds to WSJ report that the US sent $1.3B in foreign currency to Iran. https://t.co/WXBdcRjJZR
— New Day (@NewDay) September 7, 2016
On Wednesday morning, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken was even more sure that Iran was using the money to build infrastructure and take other steps to boost its economy. But even Blinken couldn’t say he was 100 percent sure.
“The overwhelming majority of that money is going to their economy, which is in dire straits,” he said. “It’s not going to the military.”
When asked how he knows that, Blink said simply, “We know.”
“We know. We’ve seen it, we see what they’re saying, we see how they’re spending it,” he said. “What they’ve told us, but also what we see, is that instead of going to the military, the money is being poured back into the economy, because this is an economy that was suffering terribly.”
But Blinken also admitted, “We can’t say that not one single dollar will go there. What we can say, based on what we’ve seen so far, is that virtually all of it is going into the economy, not into the military.”
