Obama’s Ransom Diplomacy
24th March 2016
When Iran freed five American hostages in January, President Obama was hailed by many in the mainstream media for his skillful diplomacy. However, more sober analysts, most notably Arthur Herman, wondered whether the Obama administration had, in effect, paid a ransom for the release of the Americans.
The sense that this was a gussied up case of ransom payment, rather than clever diplomacy, arose not from the $100 billion or so that Team Obama had bestowed on the mullahs through the nuclear deal. By January, this was, effectively, a sunk cost.
Rather, the ransom narrative was fueled by a new sweetener — a $1.7 billion settlement on claims relating to the sale of military equipment to Iran before the 1979 revolution, in the time of the Shah. This claim was for $400 million, the amount of money in a trust fund the U.S. apparently seized. The $1.7 billion settlement includes $1.3 billion in “interest.”
Rep. Mike Pompeo immediately voiced his concern about the payment. In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, he asked: “What is the relationship between the $1.7 billion payment and the release of the hostages?” Pompeo also noted that at least one top Iranian official had described the payment as “a bid to buy freedom of [U.S.] spies held by Tehran”.