Hoyer: Iran cash transfer was not a ransom payment
WASHINGTON (Talk Media News) – House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) told reporters at a press conference Tuesday that the Obama Administration’s recent $400 million cash transfer to Iran was not a ransom payment.
“I don’t think it was a ransom,” Hoyer said in response to a question from Talk Media News. “We all know in 1979 they (Iran) sent us $4 million for arms. The Shah of Iran had been displaced and the arms sale didn’t go forward. We’ve held that $400 million since.”
The $400 million cash transfer, which consisted of Euros and Swiss Francs, was airlifted to Iran last January. In mid-August The Wall Street Journalinterviewed an unnamed U.S. official who said that the cash transfer did not take place until the State Department had received positive confirmation that the three Americans being held hostage by the Islamic Republic had been released.
The Obama administration consistently maintains that the cash transfer was not a ransom payment but merely compensation for an arms deal that subsequently revoked after Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown in 1979. The $400 million cash transfer is merely the first installment of a $1.7 billion supposed compensatory package.
Many Republicans have recently suggested that the cash transfer is tantamount to a ransom payment and Congress has held hearings investigating the circumstances surrounding the payment.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) introduced legislation in early September that would effectively prevent Iran from receiving the remaining sum.
Hoyer suggested that the confluence of events surrounding the cash transfer likely gave the impression of a quid pro-quo.
“The confluence of the two things happening together-sort of tying up all the loose ends- and all the loose ends that are not tied up by the way; Iran is a criminal state in my opinion and there’re a lot of loose ends out there,” Hoyer said.
Hoyer reiterated his contention that the Iranian cash transfer was not a ransom payment.
“I don’t think was a ransom,” Hoyer said. “You can make the argument that the hostages were released; money is paid; but a lot of other things were done at the same time.”
Hoyer then subtly suggested that Republicans are trying to portray the cash transfer as a ransom payment so as to score political points.
“I think it’s political and we’re in a political time,” Hoyer said. “And they’re making a political issue of it.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement on Sep. 14 that the Iranian cash transfer could potentially place American tourists at risk of incremental harm.
“This $1.7 billion payment to Iran sets a dangerous precedent that puts a price on the head of Americans traveling abroad,” Ryan said in the statement.
This article is republished with permission from Talk Media News
Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.
His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.