U.S. Deputy Secretary of State in Congress: Iran Demanded Immediate Access to $1.7 Billion

Two days after an article in the American newspaper Wall Street Journal stated that the U.S. had paid the remaining $1.7 billion debt to Iran, a representative of the U.S. government defended the payment in a congressional session. Christopher Backmeier, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State for Iran, said on Thursday, September 9, that "Iran demanded immediate access to this money, and my impression is that Iran wanted to use this money for its critical economic needs." In response, Sean Duffy, chairman of the House Financial Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said, "With the evidence available, it is hard to believe that this money paid to Iran was not a ransom." He further asked the U.S. State Department representative if they could guarantee that this money would not be used for "terrorism." The Deputy Secretary of State replied that he could not speak for every dollar that goes to or comes from Iran. However, Ed Royce, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized the payment of $1.7 billion to Iran, stating that Iran's request for cash was due to the intention to use this money for "terrorism." According to the Associated Press, Republican representatives in the U.S. say that paying this amount to another country in cash is an "unusual" action and it seems that the U.S. government intended to "conceal" this action. Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the Republican majority in Congress, announced on September 1 that a proposal regarding the $400 million paid to Iran after the release of four Iranian-American prisoners would soon be voted on. He did not provide further details about this proposal. Previously, the U.S. had also sent $400 million related to the principal amount on January 6, 2016, aboard a cargo plane from Geneva, Switzerland, to Iran. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal published on September 7, the remaining $1.3 billion was sent in two cash shipments on February 21 and February 16, 2016, from Europe to Iran. The Wall Street Journal emphasized that this information was obtained from a briefing session by officials from the State Department, Treasury, and Justice in the U.S. Congress. The Associated Press had previously reported that this $1.3 billion was paid to the Islamic Republic in 13 separate installments. This money represents the interest on a $400 million arms deal between Iran and the U.S. during the final months of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's rule, which was not executed due to the Islamic Revolution and the severance of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The timing of the payment to Iran and the release of dual-national Iranian-American prisoners by Tehran led Republicans in the U.S. to consider it as "ransom" to the Islamic Republic. The U.S. government claims that this payment was not a "ransom" to Iran but has confirmed that it did not make the payment until it was assured of the prisoners' release.