President Obama's team used a $400 million cash payment as "maximum leverage" to get Iran to release American hostages, a State Department official confirmed Thursday.
"The payment of the $400 million was not done until after the prisoners were released," State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed to reporters.
Kirby tried to avoid using the term "ransom" to describe the payment, but he conceded that the payment was "connected" to the release of the hostages. The payment was originally touted as the first step in resolving a long-standing dispute about money owed to Iran dating back to a failed weapons deal agreed to before the 1979 revolution.
"We, of course, sought to retain maximum leverage until after American citizens were released, and that was our top priority," Kirby said. "If your top priority is to get your Americans out and you're already having some issues about locating some of them, [then] you want to make sure that that release gets done before you complete that transaction."
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3 comments:
Yet the parents that wanted to pay to have their son return, he said he put them in jail. Maybe we should do the same to him. He did do what they wanted to do. Only wishing on my part. (map)
and that ladies and gentlemen is what is called a RANSOM
That's not what Jawn Kerry said!
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