U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said that reports that the Obama administration paid a $400 million ransom to Iran for the release of detainees was a sign of weakness to U.S. enemies.
Zeldin said that paying $400 million in cash to “the world’s largest sponsor of terror” shows that the administration would do anything to appease Iran and show weakness to enemies.
“This ransom has already proven to result in the consequences of why America shouldn’t have agreed to this payment in the first place,” Zeldin said. “Iran has started imprisoning multiple Iranian-Americans again as well as foreigners from other nations, which are America’s allies. When deals like this are cut, one has to truly wonder whether the president has no idea what he is doing, or if he knows exactly what he is doing and is playing for some other team. Unfortunately, paying a $400 million ransom is no game and the consequences are grave.”
U.S. Rep. Todd Young (R-IN) added that using unmarked cargo planes to funnel hard cash to the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism was “beyond shocking.”
“An undisclosed transfer of this amount invites Iran to dispose of the cash at-will toward whatever illicit activity the regime chooses,” Young said. “The Obama administration orchestrating this secret airlift was the same administration negotiating the release of innocent Americans detained in Iranian prisons. That both occurred on the same day is no coincidence and leaves no plausible interpretation besides a quid pro quo ransom rewarded to Iran.”
Young was the lead author of legislation that would establish a House Select Committee to provide oversight of the Iran nuclear deal.
“This entire debacle, from start to finish, lends unprecedented legitimacy to the illegal detention of dual nationals and incentivizes bad actors to imprison more Americans — which the Iranian regime subsequently has done,” Young said. “The White House and State Department promised a thaw in relations with Iran, yet we continue to uncover dangerous capitulations that reward the rogue actions of this terrorist regime. As a nation, we must move beyond this administration’s foreign policy of denial and deception.”
U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), meanwhile, said that he was “outraged” to learn that tax dollars had been shipped to a terrorist regime.
“President Obama is so desperate to defend his disastrous Iran policy that he has resorted to ransom payments, effectively putting a price on every American citizen who travels abroad,” Roskam said.