The US and Qatar have agreed to deny Iran access to $6 billion of its own funds that were recently released as part of a prisoner swap deal with the US, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
The $6 billion was frozen in South Korea due to US sanctions on Iran that were re-imposed after the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, in 2018.
As part of an agreement to secure the release of five Americans, the US agreed to allow the transfer of the $6 billion to Qatar, where US officials said it could only be accessed by Tehran for humanitarian purposes. The US also released five Iranians who were detained over alleged sanctions violations.
The swap was made in September, but the US decision to again freeze the $6 billion goes back on the agreement. The move came after Republicans and some Democrats claimed the release of the $6 billion was related to the Hamas attack on southern Israel. But so far, there are no indications Iran was involved, as US intelligence says Iranian leaders were surprised by the operation, and the Israeli military said there’s no evidence of Iranian involvement.
According to the Times, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told the House that Iran would no longer have access to the $6 billion. The report said it’s unclear if the Biden administration intends to cut off Iran’s access to the funds permanently or if it’s just a temporary measure. Iran’s Nournews also reported on Thursday that Iran still has access to the funds, so it’s unclear if they have been frozen yet.
The US decision dims hopes that the prisoner swap deal would foster more diplomacy between the US and Iran. Now, Iranian opponents of negotiating with the US have another example of the US backing out of a deal, similar to the JCPOA.
It must be a precondition to government employment that you be unable to do any second stage thinking. Now Iran will never cooperate or trust the US again (not that they ever should have), and they now have every incentive to move forward with their nuclear program. I guess to these people, when everything looks like a nail…shoot it.
I think Khamenei’s fatwa against nukes is probably real and sincere. It’s not likely that it will be changed except under really horrendous new circumstances.
And the chances of such circumstances developing and driving such a change are, I think, rather less likely given the ongoing shift of world relationships toward multipolarity.
Russia and China have plenty of nukes.
so true, a real own goal
Given Iran has made a statement “congratulating” Hamas on their terrorist attacks and attempts at genocide this relative diplomatic renegement is entirely justified. The rules change when nation-states provide aid, support, training and funding to proxies that try to carry out genocide and ethnic cleansing.
If genocide and ethnic cleansing were disqualifications for deals with US, what would happen to Israel?
This implication implied in this statement is not true, as Israel has never and will never engage in acts such as the ones you have described. Israeli governmental policy toward “Palestinian Resistance” has taken every possible step toward “reconciliation” and general de-escalation, with Israeli security forces even pulling out of Gaza, granting the region effective self-government, their ostensible goal, yet terrorist attacks and calls for genocide from these organizations did not cease. Israeli Security Forces routinely allow children hoping for “martyrdom” to attack their tanks and personnel, strikes against known terrorists use special forces instead of explosives for fear of civilian casualties, something that results in far more military casualties, yet even this muted response wouldn’t qualify as self-defense? As the world comes together to condemn Hamas’s unjustifiable terrorism and support Israel, we can only wish the brave souls of the Israeli Defense Forces godspeed in their mission.
More self-parody. Or maybe you’re an undercover operative for Hamas in a fiendishly-clever scheme to discredit Israel by inundating the internet with nonsense so preposterous that millions will turn away in disgust.
Mirrors Edge joined on Oct 11, 2023. That’s three days ago. Every now and then the Hasbara team at Zionism central hires a newbee to drop in here do a little Zio narrative push-back. Then after a while, when they get no traction, they fade away.
I guess the current irruption in the Zionist crime drama induced a slight uptick in narrative reinforcement, probably across the media landscape.
(Bot driven?)
This too shall pass.
I don’t even particularly know why I’m responding to this, but while I did create a “Disqus” account due to issues involving current events, I have used this site before.
Now that I think about it, it would be really nice to be paid for spreading the truth. If you guys know so much about this could you maybe set me up with some of these people (sarcasm).
You are full of more sh*t than a Christmas goose. You know the situation in Gaza, West Bank. You know the insatiable desire of settlers from other countries to need more lands. You cannot be oblivious to the recent pogroms by the settlers. An Israeli lawmaker recently made note of it: https://news.antiwar.com/2023/10/08/israeli-lawmaker-says-pogroms-against-palestinians-provoked-hamas-assault/
That has nothing to do with Iran’s funds being cut off. Not even mentioned.
The title of this article is “US, Qatar Agree to Deny Iran Access to $6 Billion of Its Funds”, and it does not once mention that Iran has provided aid, support, training and funding to Hamas, as well as a “congratulations” for the actions it has committed.
Should it mention the US providing aid to the Saudis? Or the terrorists in Syria? Or how about mentioning our esteemed politicians calling for the “leveling” of Gaza? Or is only the US that can do those things? Iran’s funds should never been touched in the first place. We don the same shit in spades. The hypocrisy is thick.
While U.S. aid to Syrian rebels, as well as unjustified extensive involvement in their security concerns is and remains a blight, you’ll notice that aside from a brief Islamic State presence in the area (which the U.S. fought afterward) and the claims of the SDF and PYD being terrorist groups by Erdogan that don’t appear particularly credible (https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/17/turkey-claim-syrian-kurds-terrorists-not-isis-ypg-pkk-sdf/) the U.S. has not supported terrorist organizations in Syria, while Iran has provided aid, support, training and funding to Hamas, as well as a “congratulating” them the actions they have committed. Isolated rhetoric is also not grounds to freeze funds, and as the world comes together to condemn Hamas’s unjustifiable terrorism and support Israel, we cant allow divisions to divide us, and can only wish the brave souls of the Israeli Defense Forces godspeed in their mission.
I see you ignored our ally, the Saudis. They can butcher human beings, have mass executions and fund terrorism while being the recipient of US aid. And no mention of the rhetoric of our politicians who cheer on the destruction of Gaza and its 2 million inhabitants, half of which are children. And never mind supporting an apartheid practicing Israel.
“the brave souls of the Israeli Defense Forces godspeed in their mission.”
That made me want to puke.
Oh, I guess I missed the Saudi Arabia comment. While I’m not as knowledgable about the situation in Yemen with the Houthi rebels, the accusations against Saudi Arabia and its coalition by credible human rights organizations (not Al-Jazeera, I’d rather not go down that route again… ) are for “war crimes” and noticeably not genocide, and the 9-11 terrorist attacks were perpetrated by mostly private Saudi-Arabian citizens, and as of yet there has been no conclusive proof that the Saudi-Arabian government would have had advanced knowledge of an operation like this against the U.S. (no, “Loose Change” along with its other versions and the Michael Moore “documentary” also do not count as credible sources). You stating that you find my comment supporting the Israeli Defense’s justified operations against terrorism and acts of genocide is also distasteful, as you also noticeably do not provide any alternative to the reasonable actions I have described, and as such these “complaints” do not appear particularly insightful.
So, the Saudis are ok because they don’t meet your threshold for “war crimes” or “genocide”? And then you twist yourself into a pretzel trying to deny their involvement with 9/11 while ignoring the points I brought up. Like their butchering of the Journalist, their mass execution day, their sponsorship of terrorism or their ongoing human rights abuses. But Iran bad.
There was no genocide attempted, stop exaggerating. Every attack on Israel isn’t genocidal in nature. And I didn’t say that Israel didn’t have a right to respond. Only that the response will be more genocidal in nature than anything Hamas did in their attack on Israel. Reasonable actions my ass. Instructing 1 million people to evacuate so their neighborhoods can be leveled isn’t in any sense reasonable. But since I don’t have an alternative, that must mean it’s justified. Take your garbage elsewhere.
If saying that sources with hundreds of documented errors should not count as credible is “twisting myself into a pretzel”, I’ll take the compliment. While the unjustified and unprovoked intelligence killing of Jamal Khashoggi was a horrific act, it was noticeably not an attempt of genocide, as instead it was simply an unfortunate act. However, my point was that these types of deaths appear to be in the single-digits, and the Saudi-Arabian coalition in Yemen, while it may have issues, is fundamentally not an attempt at erasing or eradicating the people of Yemen. If an organization calling for genocide (this is very well documented in Hamas’s founding documents: https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.msn.com%2Fen-us%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Funderstanding-hamas-s-genocidal-ideology%2Far-AA1i0jaZ%3AcPp2dhnOy1Q8glT4lLsWw9c-1jw&cuid=18764) and subsequently massacring the civilian population they claimed they would kill would not be genocide, what would be? Telling people to leave an apartment when terrorist organizations such as Hamas could be hiding weapons, personnel and equipment on one of the other floors is absolutely reasonable, and should be treated as such.
So, you are on to defending Saudi Arabia with the argument that they weren’t attempting genocide in Yemen. Or that they only murder people in low numbers. Sounds like twisting oneself into a pretzel to me by comparing one group of butchers with another. And again, implying that this attack was genocidal in nature is just nonsense. Hamas doesn’t have the capability to carry out anything close to resembling “genocide” and throwing that word around is just an attempt to generate the acceptance of the carnage that will follow. And what do you think “leveling” means? Do you think the impending ground invasion is going to be done without eliminating those “apartments”? You think those “brave” IDF soldiers are going to do a ground assault with all those buildings still standing? Think again. This isn’t going to be a search and seizure operation. Those people won’t have anything to come back to but thank goodness it’s not an attempt at genocide. Am I right?
I’m not defending Saudi Arabia or some of its more atrocious actions on the world stage, I’m simply stating that when compared to an organization that claims it wishes to commit genocide and commits terrorism and acts of genocide to support precisely that goal there is a need to maintain a sense of scale. Terrorist groups often hope “global jihad” will increase their personnel and supplies, so your guesses about their intentions through their resources is not relevant or useful. I never said Israel’s justified self-defense operation couldn’t result in the destruction of some civilian infrastructure due to terrorist organizations like Hamas hiding weapons, personnel and equipment in those areas, but to act as if the possible destruction of a few buildings due to a counter-terrorism and anti-genocide operations would invalidate this response is false and disingenuous. Buildings can be rebuilt. People can’t.
Holy shit. You are hasbara. Knapp was right.
I didn’t say that it was hasbara. I just noticed that its account history wasn’t inconsistent with that possibility.
After more experience with it — including banning multiple iterations of it over at my personal blog for being a boring off-topic troll — I’m thinking it’s more like “fidgety 13-year-old who hasn’t discovered xhamster yet.”
This coming from an individual who on his blog literally claimed to have committed war crimes, then felt the need to elaborate that it was his personal choice to commit them. Its very clear why you wrote this latest pathetic drivel: to distract from the fact that you admitted your a war criminal by choice, who somehow still tries to present himself as a credible source of information to others. Your not, and your actions have shown that if you ever were you have not been for a very long time. Take a hint and never write anything online ever again.
As someone whose actually worked in the U.S. government in public affairs sections with outreach to media organizations and the like, its just so easy to pick apart some of your unsupported false accusations. I’m also at the point in my life where false claims against me on the internet don’t really bother me, so go figure. So I was doing some research, and I’m beginning to think your story isn’t true and was just created to annoy me, as if you truly were the equivalent of a platoon commander with numerous people below you (another reason I should have questioned the story – how would you have achieved rank advancement so quickly?) and above you it probably would have been out of your hands, and the story would be the way to “prove” to me the whole “terrorist state” thing. That might have been my fault for jumping on the fiction so quickly (although not entirely, the Trump administration pardoned Blackwater operative wasn’t particularly quiet… ), but regardless if nothing else it was a good refresher on standard operating procedure on the internet.
Not only was I not a platoon commander, I wasn’t a commissioned officer. I was an NCO who ended up in charge of a reaction team during an incident.
As for doubtful stories, your poor writing skills tend to discredit the claim that you’ve worked in public affairs/media, even for as non-selective an outfit as a government. Or, for that matter, that you’ve graduated from high school yet.
You really think I’m putting in 10,000% effort against your account when you haven’t even successfully refuted my earlier supported evidence and its subsequent conclusions. But you made an unsupported false claim against me on the internet, so I guess its over (and why’d you I assume move my previous response to “wars r u.s.” to the bottom of the screen. Can you move it back?). U.S. public affairs also wasn’t just report writing, it involved outreach and coordination, but I guess the nuance may have been lost on you once more. Also, if your trying to influence people on the internet, you should stop with the irrational U.S. government hatred, as you might not even exist without historical vaccines funded and distributed by the U.S. government.
“You really think”
Yes, I do.
I highly recommmend it.
Give it a try some time.
Oh no, what an absolutely devastating reply that completely eviscerated the substantive points I’ve made. I guess I’m going to have to figure out how to do that from your comments, but so far I’m having trouble finding any evidence of it…
Your only “substantive point” so far has been the one on top of your head.
Oh no, not another personal attack that does nothing to invalidate me! Okay, you have quite a long list of things to disprove:
-Israel takes every reasonable step to limit civilian casualties
-There are any reasonable alternative to nation-states, as without the nation-state of Israel there wouldn’t be a faction to fight against the terrorism and acts of genocide perpetrated against Israeli civilians this week
-If “statism is terrorism” and your an “anarchist”, surely you can list where this form of societal organization has worked out.
-Somalia. This might be a little petty but I did a lot of research on how Somalia under a period of relative anarchy was not a good place to live under and you never responded.
-Your whole “NCO” comment as if that substantively addressed my response. Thats still a relatively high-ranking post.
-Why should anyone listen to your irrational state-hatred if you might not even exist without the advances of nation-states, such as vaccines and industrial agriculture…
Now that I think about it, it would be really nice to be paid for spreading the truth. If you guys know so much about this could you maybe set me up with some of these people (sarcasm).
The United States never fulfills its agreements. Why does Iran keep trusting the US?
This mighty US ally is about the size if Rhode Island.
Fake news to satisfy US Neocons…!
Iran gets punked.
That’ll be the last time we ever get an American back from Iran again…
Sooo stupid.
Wrong.
It’s not about the money. There’s a lot more that goes into prisoner exchanges.
Serves Iran right for trusting the “great Satan”.
Good lesson not to try and store any “wealth” by buying IOU’s from the American Federal government
https://media2.giphy.com/media/x2fsM70Yb4nkY/giphy-downsized-small.mp4
(the US) goes back on the agreement
Native Americans are in SHOCK!