Ayotte, Gardner raise questions about military, defense officials’ knowledge of Iran payments

U.S. Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Cory Gardner (R-CO) raised questions on Wednesday about why the Obama administration made a $1.7 billion payment to Iran without notifying top U.S. military officials.

Ayotte and Gardner led letters to Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joseph Dunford seeking information about their lack of knowledge about the administration’s secret payment to Iran. Joining Ayotte and Gardner in sending the letters were 16 of their colleagues, including U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Susan Collins (R-ME), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Pat Roberts (R-KY), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Roger Wicker (R-MS).

“Iran is almost certainly using this windfall to skirt the arms embargo and illicitly purchase weapons for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the terrorist organization Hezbollah, and/or the murderous Assad regime in Syria,” the letter states. “We are deeply concerned that this large infusion of U.S. taxpayer-funded cash into the coffers of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism is going to further embolden Iran and result in our troops and our allies confronting more lethal and better equipped adversaries and potential adversaries.”

The letter follows congressional testimony in September in which Carter and Dunford called reports that Iran was benefiting from the administration’s cash payment “troubling.”

The senators found it troubling, the letter states, that the Obama administration did not think that it was necessary to notify the secretary of defense or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs that the U.S. was providing $1.7 billion in cash to the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.

“These additional funds for Iran’s military budget are troubling especially in light of the increasingly belligerent behavior of Tehran since the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action went into effect,” the letter states. “In addition to supporting Hezbollah and Assad, since last January, Iran has illegally detained ten American sailors, repeatedly tested ballistic missiles, incessantly harassed U.S. naval vessels, and unjustly imprisoned American citizens.”

Gardner, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently introduced the No Ransom Payments Act, S.3285, to prohibit the Treasury Department from using the Judgment Fund to make payments to Iran until Iran returns the ransom payments and compensates victims of terrorism.