GOP criticises Barack Obama’s ‘ransom’

The Obama administration is facing a storm of Republican criticism after acknowledging that a $400 million cash payment to Iran seven months ago was contingent on the release of a group of American prisoners.

Thursday’s explanation was the first time the U.S. had so clearly linked the two events, which critics have painted as a hostage-ransom arrangement.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said the negotiations to return the Iranian money from a 1970s account to buy US military equipment were conducted separately from talks to free four US citizens in Iran. He said the US withheld the delivery of the cash as leverage until Iran permitted the Americans to leave the country.

“We had concerns that Iran may renege on the prisoner release,” Kirby said, citing delays and mutual mistrust between countries that severed diplomatic relations 36 years ago. As a result, he explained, the US “of course sought to retain maximum leverage until after the American citizens were released.”

Both events occurred January 17, fueling suspicions from Republican lawmakers and accusations from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump of a quid pro quo that undermined America’s longstanding opposition to ransom payments. Several members of Congress immediately pounced on Thursday’s shift.

Kirby spoke a day after The Wall Street Journal reported new details of the crisscrossing planes on that day. US officials wouldn’t let Iran bring the cash home a plane carrying three of the freed Americans departed from Tehran, the paper reported. The fourth American left on a commercial flight.

Some Iranian officials immediately linked the payment to the release of four Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who had been held in Iranian prisons. U.S. officials had pinned the delays on difficulties finding Rezaian's wife and mother, and ensuring they could depart Iran with him.