U.S. Concedes $400 Million Payment to Iran Was Delayed as Prisoner ‘Leverage’

NYTimes:

The State Department conceded for the first time on Thursday that it delayed making a $400 million payment to Iran for several hours in January “to retain maximum leverage” and ensure that three American prisoners were released the same day.

For months the Obama administration had maintained that the payment was part of a settlement over an old dispute and did not amount to a “ransom” for the release of the Americans. Instead, administration officials said, it was the first installment of the $1.7 billion that the United States intends to pay Iran to reimburse it for military equipment it bought before the Iranian revolution that the United States never delivered.

But at a briefing on Thursday, John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, said the United States “took advantage of the leverage” it felt it had that weekend in mid-January to obtain the release of the hostages and “to make sure they got out safely and efficiently.”

Republicans opposed to the nuclear deal President Obama reached with Iran have described the payment as ransom and a further sign of his administration’s feckless dealings with Tehran.

Administration officials have said that the two transactions were negotiated entirely separately over a period of years. That they came together on one weekend reflected a desire on the part of Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, to set aside a series of disputes, complete the nuclear deal and try to remove irritants from the relationship between two longtime rivals.

The acknowledgment by Mr. Kirby on Thursday touched off a torrent of criticism from Republicans.

“It was ransom,” said Representative Ed Royce of California, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We now know it was ransom. And on top of that it put more American lives at risk. And we’ve emboldened Iran. We’ve encouraged them, frankly, to take more hostages and put more American lives at risk of being taken hostage.”

Neither the payment nor the prisoner release was a secret. Mr. Obama announced the financial settlement, and the release of three Americans, on Jan. 17, just as the Iranian nuclear deal reached its “implementation day.” But for months the administration remained silent on the carefully choreographed timing, apparently fearful of the political blowback of appearing to have paid for the release of the three — a Washington Post reporter, a Marine veteran and a pastor.

“We do not pay ransom,” Mr. Obama said on Aug. 4. “We didn’t here and we won’t in the future.”

Mr. Kerry said something similar: “The United States does not pay ransom and does not negotiate ransoms.”

But the Iranian press has described the payment as a ransom — which fits Tehran’s narrative that it has outmaneuvered the Obama administration. That is also the argument of Republicans, including Donald J. Trump, the party’s candidate for president.

At a rally in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday night, Mr. Trump said that the State Department’s admission vindicated his past accusations that Mr. Obama had lied about the intent of the $400 million payment.

81 days left until the election.