WASHINGTON -- Republican lawmakers are calling for an inquiry into the Obama administration's decision to pay a $1.7 billion claims settlement to Iran after Iranian hard-liners reignited concerns that the money was ransom to secure the release of American prisoners.
The dispute is the latest point of contention between the Obama administration and Republicans vehemently opposed to its handling of negotiations with Iran over a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions and an agreement to free several Americans, including Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, from Iranian detention.
The settlement was over a claim long pending before an international tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, set up to resolve disputes between the United States and Iran in the wake of the hostage crisis spanning from 1979 to 1981. The sum of $400 million, plus $1.3 billion in interest, settled claims over money Iran paid decades ago to buy weapons from the United States that were never delivered, after Iran's revolution broke out.
"There was no benefit to the United States in dragging this out," President Barack Obama said of the settlement last weekend after the nuclear deal was implemented, adding that the country probably saved "billions" by striking a deal instead of waiting for a judgment. "With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well."
But where the administration presented the confluence of events as simply politically expedient timing, leading Republicans saw the troubling sketches of a ransom deal. And in Iran, the commander of the country's Basij force reportedly boasted last week that Iran had secured the money as a price for letting the Americans go.
"This money was returned for the freedom of the U.S. spy, and it was not related to the [nuclear] negotiations," said Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, according to Iran's Fars news service.
"There was no bribe, there was no ransom, there was nothing paid to secure the return of these Americans who were, by the way, not spies," State Department spokesman Mark Toner responded, referring to the charges that held each of the Americans in Iranian prison for years.
Although the matter surfaced in a number of exchanges over the years, talks on the money only gained speed during the last year or so of contacts between the Americans and Iranians focused on the prisoner swap, officials familiar with the process said. They weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.
Lawmakers want more information.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., is seeking an investigation. The GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee has asked congressional researchers to look into the matter. And Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., has introduced legislation in the Senate that would limit Obama's ability to transfer funds to Iran, which could affect other financial disagreements between the two countries.
"The United States should not be funding governments that openly violate human rights, proudly disregard U.N. Security Council resolutions and call for the destruction of America and its allies," Moran said in a statement.
"Rather than incentivize state-sponsored kidnapping," he said, "the administration should remind the government of Iran that terror and hostage taking are not for-profit enterprises."
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward Royce, R-Calif., said in an emailed statement to the AP, "This concession was never raised by the State Department as on the table, which the Administration must answer for." He is also seeking an inquiry into the claim settlement and how it may have related to the prisoner release.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was one of the first critics to label the transaction "ransom," though he has not decided whether to establish an official inquiry into the matter.
The administration has denied any suggestions that the United States engaged in a quid pro quo arrangement for the release of the American detainees, financial or otherwise. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest described the prisoner deal as a "humanitarian gesture."
Officially, the United States maintains a zero-tolerance policy for negotiating the release of prisoners or hostages with ransom payments, unlike some of its European allies, who have paid for the release of their citizens. Such policies have come under close scrutiny in the past few years as extremist groups have captured Westerners and demanded ransom payments for their return.
The Justice Department maintains the right to charge private citizens and companies who arrange ransom payments to such groups with providing material support for terrorism, though last year the department stated that it would not prosecute such cases.
Brian Michael Jenkins, a Rand Corp. expert who has written extensively about prisoner exchanges, said that policies on how to deal with terrorists do not apply to agreements such as those ironed out between the United States and Iran.
Jenkins cited deals to send medical supplies to Cuba in order to release brigade prisoners who were captured during the Bay of Pigs crisis and assets that were released to resolve the American hostage crisis with Iran as examples of prior crises in which the United States made similar arrangements.
The terms of the 1981 release of the American hostages, negotiated under President Jimmy Carter but carried out under President Ronald Reagan, was "a lot closer to a 'ransom' than the current arrangement," Jenkins added. "This is in the category of diplomacy."
To make the payment, the administration returned the $400 million balance from the Iranian account once used for military purchases.
The rest of the money came from an account administered by the Treasury Department for settling litigation claims. The so-called Judgment Fund is taxpayer money Congress has permanently approved in the event it's needed, allowing the president to bypass direct congressional approval to make a settlement. The U.S. previously paid out $278 million in Iran-related claims by using the fund in 1991.
In addition to those who left last week on a charter plane for Switzerland -- Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former Marine Amir Hekmati and pastor Saeed Abedini -- one American was permitted to leave a day earlier while another who was freed from prison opted to stay in Iran. Rezaian returned to the U.S. on the private jet of Post owner Jeff Bezos, the founder of online giant Amazon, the Post reported Friday night.
In exchange for the Americans, the U.S. pardoned or dropped charges against seven Iranian citizens accused of sanctions violations, and gave up on extradition requests for 14 additional people.
Information for this article was contributed by Karoun Demirjian of The Washington Post and by Bradley Klapper of The Associated Press.
A Section on 01/24/2016