Senate

GOP senator wants details on Iran ‘ransom’

by Jordain Carney - 08/03/16 4:13 PM ET

Sen. Tom Cotton is demanding the Obama administration hand over details on a $400 million payment made to Iran, which opponents of last year’s nuclear agreement are calling a “ransom.”

The Arkansas Republican sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Wednesday, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States had given Iran $400 million in cash — a payment that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran.

{mosads}”This report makes plain what the Administration can no longer deny: this was a ransom payment to Iran for U.S. hostages,” Cotton wrote. “That your officials have been reluctant to disclose to me and my colleagues the full nature and timing of the … payment is discomforting.”

The State Department downplayed the payment, arguing the Journal offered little new information aside from “salacious” details. The payment was the first part of a $1.7 billion settlement to resolve a dispute surrounding an arms deal signed just before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

But Republicans have seized on the details — namely the timing and that it was made in cash — to argue that it was a ransom payment for four U.S. hostages.

“Iran has a history of illegally detaining U.S. persons as hostages, and it has shown a continued propensity to seize such hostages,” Cotton wrote. “I’m that the afraid cash payment of a $400 million ransom to the ayatollahs makes all of these problems exponentially worse.”

Cotton is asking for Kerry and Lew to detail — with “full, honest answers” — if they can “clearly state” that Iran would have released the hostages if the administration hadn’t agreed to pay $1.7 billion to Iran. He also wants to know if how Iran uses the money is being tracked and what currency the rest of the payment will be made in.

Reiterating that he believes the initial $400 million is a “ransom,” he also asks if Iranian officials, or individuals linked to Tehran, have talked with the administration about any additional cash payments that would be tied to the release of Americans currently held in Iran.

Tags John Kerry Tom Cotton