The State Department insisted Tuesday that Iran has no reason to believe that the U.S. will honor ransom demands for the release of dual U.S.-Iranian citizens or others with close western ties imprisoned in Iran.
“I can’t speak to the motivation behind these detentions, but if there’s a perception out there, if one of the motivations were to secure ransom, it is a false perception — it is wrong,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
“What I can say again is that we do not pay ransom. We don’t pay ransom,” he said. “We didn’t then, we don’t now. We’re not going to change that policy going forward.”
Kirby was responding to news earlier Tuesday that a U.S. permanent resident who has been imprisoned in Iran for more than a year says Tehran is demanding a $4 million ransom in exchange for his release.
Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen and permanent resident of the United States, said through his attorney Tuesday that Iranian officials in April told him it would take as much as $2 billion to ensure his release from captivity. In September, Iranian officials lowered that amount to $4 million, and told him that he was spared the death penalty but would remain in prison for 10 years until the payments is made, his attorney said in a statement.
That demand is likely to rekindle complaints by Republicans that the Obama administration has given an incentive to Iran to take and hold hostages in return for ransom payments, by timing out a $400 million cash payment to Iran in January in order to ensure the release of four hostages.
The Obama administration has argued that the payment was unrelated to the American hostages’ release, and was paid to resolve a longstanding dispute over money Iran had paid to the U.S. to buy jets, a deal that never happened after the Shah of Iran was overthrown in 1979. But officials have admitted that the payment was delayed to gain leverage in the hostage negotiations, and Republicans have warned that decision would lead to more hostage situations.
During the State Department briefing Tuesday, reporters continued to press Kirby on whether Americans traveling to Iran are now becoming “cash cows,” giving incentives to Iranian officials to imprison them and demand payments from the U.S. government for their safe return.
“I can’t possibly get into the heads of Iranian officials — I can’t speak to their motivations on this,” Kirby said.
He said the State Department is “always working to attain the release of Americans detained unjustly.”
“I’m not going to speak to our effort in that regard, but we do not pay ransom and that’s not going to change,” he said.
