The US has taken another step toward completing a prisoner swap deal with Iran that will involve Tehran gaining access to $6 billion of its own frozen funds, The Associated Press reported Monday.
Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed a sanctions waiver allowing the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar. In a notification to Congress sent on Monday, Blinken said the funds would be placed in “restricted accounts” and that Tehran would have access “only for humanitarian trade.”
Blinken also said the US plans to release five unnamed Iranians who have been detained in the US over allegations of sanctions violations. In return, Iran will release five Americans who were recently put on house arrest in a hotel to prepare for the swap.
Sources told AP they expect the prisoner swap to happen as early as next week. The news that the US and Iran had agreed on a prisoner exchange was first reported by The New York Times at the beginning of August.
Iran hawks in Congress are furious with the Biden administration over the deal and are portraying the transfer of $6 billion as a “ransom” even though it is Iran’s own money.
The prisoner swap signals there may be more room for diplomacy between the US and Iran. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed on Monday that the Biden administration “established a secret nuclear deal” with Iran that’s being kept from Congress.
“. . . and Iran will be granted access to $6 billion of its own money.”
To spend only as US officials permit. And who gets the interest on those billions?
That money (and a billion dollars more) was owed by South Korea to Iran for oil imports “permitted” under a waiver of US sanctions “granted” by the US. The waiver had a time limit and expired four years ago. When it did, the funds remained in a South Korean bank.
So Iran gets limited access to a portion of its own money, the value of which has been reduced by inflation, and must release prisoners for the privilege.
Always remember: “They hate us for our freedom.”
Suspect there’s also a silent codicil providing Iran puts so many bbs of oil on the market sometime next summer.
There might be. Remember, though, that Iran is perfectly happy to put oil on the market. If the US dropped its sanctions and stopped the piracy . . .
US politicians funded by Israel to be anti-Iran parrot the false line that “Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism” which of course is wrong. Iran does support partners, proxies and organizations across the Middle East which are anti-Israel and -US but the US has caused much more damage in that part of the world than Iran has done.
And we send $4 billion per year to the actual state sponsors of terrorism.
The prisoner swap signals there may be more room for diplomacy between the US and Iran. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed on Monday that the Biden administration “established a secret nuclear deal” with Iran that’s being kept from Congress.
Cruz:
“Meanwhile he has allowed the Iranian regime to all but acquire a virtual nuclear arsenal over the last two and a half years.”
But never mind what our intelligence agencies say. The same thing they were saying when Teddy’s boy was president and left the deal. Ask your ugly wife Ted.
Warning to the Ukrainians: The United States does not negotiate in good faith. There are too many instances to quote in space this limited.
And they say there is no honor amongst thieves.