‘Like a Drug Cartel Transaction’

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday likened the manner in which the Obama administration paid $400 million to Iran on the day five imprisoned Americans were released to a “drug cartel transaction.”

Speaking to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, Cotton described the incident last January as “$400 million in small unmarked bills, flying into Iran on a unmarked aircraft, like it was a drug cartel transaction, not a legitimate negotiation between two governments.”

The administration maintains that the $400 million it paid to Iran was settlement of an unresolved claim dating back to the 1979 Islamic revolution, plus an agreed $1.3 billion in interest.

It has consistently denied that the payment amounted to a “ransom” for the Americans, or indeed was linked in any way to their release – or to the simultaneous implementation of the nuclear deal struck with Iran in drawn-out multilateral negotiations.

Although the administration made no secret of the settlement payout at the time, it did not disclose how the transaction took place. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that foreign currency banknotes to the equivalent of $400 million were packed on a pallet and flown to Tehran in an unmarked aircraft.

Cotton, a longstanding critic of the nuclear deal, said the U.S. would be unable to trace the “cold, hard cash” or determine what it’s being used for. But he recalled that even White House press secretary Josh Earnest has acknowledged that Iran could use the money it has to sponsor terrorism.

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