Spokesman John Kirby said negotiations over the United States’ return of Iranian money from a decades-old frozen account were conducted separately from talks to release the prisoners. But he said the U.S. withheld delivery of the cash as leverage until the U.S. citizens had left Iran.
Both events happened on Jan. 17.
"Payment of the $400 million was not done until the prisoners were released," Kirby said, according to an unofficial transcript. While he refused to provide a "tick-tock" of the release of the money and the prisoners, "they came together near simultaneously," Kirby said. "We retained maximum leverage until the Americans were released."
The admission came after the Wall St. Journal reported that the four Americans were released through a carefully orchestrated deal that included removing sanctions from Iran Air the day before the release of U.S. Pastor Saeed Abedini, Washington Post Tehran Bureau Chief Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and a businessman Nosratollah Khosrawi-Roodsari. All four are Iranian-born, dual U.S.-Iranian citizens who were visiting or working in Iran when they were detained.
The shipment, on pallets loaded with Euros, Swiss Franks and other currency, was loaded onto an Iranian cargo plane in Geneva, Switzerland, but not allowed to depart for Iran until a Swiss Air Force craft with the Americans on board was allowed to depart from Tehran, the Journal reported.
President Obama denied on Aug. 4 that the payment was tied to the detainees’ release, saying the money was the first installment of the lifting of sanctions called for by the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. It was money the United States owed Iran from a failed arms deal that predated the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran that brought the current government into power, the White House said.
“We do not pay ransom for hostages,” Obama said at the time
Source: usatoday
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