On Monday, U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Alabama) joined a letter by Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and 24 of her Republican colleagues in demanding answers from the Biden Administration about the approximately $6 billion reportedly paid to Iran in exchange for Americans wrongfully being held as political hostages by the Iranian regime.
“Handing $6 billion to the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism is a reckless and disastrous decision that threatens the lives of Americans and our allies across the globe,” said Senator Britt. “Once again, the Biden Administration has chosen to appease our adversaries and set a dangerous precedent. President [Joe] Biden’s weakness will only embolden hostile actors to engage in further aggression around the world. We must achieve peace through strength, and I will always fight to hold this Administration accountable for putting American families at risk.”
In a letter to Secretaries Antony Blinken and Janet Yellen, the senators wrote, “When the Obama administration released $400 million in liquidated assets to Iran in 2016, we warned that this dangerous precedent would put a price on American lives. Seven years later, the current administration is providing a ransom payment worth at least fifteen times that amount to the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, in yet another violation of the United States’ long-standing ‘no concessions’ policy. In the release of Executive Order 14078 on July 19, 2022, the White House admitted that ‘terrorist organizations, criminal groups, and other malicious actors who take hostages for financial, political, or other gain—as well as foreign states that engage in the practice of wrongful detention, including for political leverage or to seek concessions from the United States—threaten the integrity of the international political system and the safety of United States nationals and other persons abroad.’ The release of such a significant sum to the Iranian regime runs entirely counter to that claim and will only serve to encourage additional hostage-taking for financial or political gain.”
Joining Senators Britt and Scott on the letter were Senators Jim Risch (R-Wisconsin), Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Steve Daines (R-Montana), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), Ted Budd (R-North Carolina), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska), John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), Todd Young (R-Indiana), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia)
After more than two years of quiet negotiations, Iran has released five Iranian American dual citizens into house arrest, according to original reporting by the New York Times – quoting officials at the State Department and the National Security Council.
“This is just the beginning of a process that I hope and expect will lead to their return home to the United States,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday. “There’s more work to be done to actually bring them home. My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare.”
The prisoners are Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi, and Morad Tahbaz, who had all been jailed on unsubstantiated charges of spying, as well as two others whose families have withheld their names. One of the unnamed Americans is a scientist, and the other is a businessman, according to sources.
In addition to releasing the $6 billion in seized oil funds, the U.S. has agreed to hand over imprisoned Iranians as part of the prisoner swap.
Britt and her colleagues had objected to paying the ransom before the deal had been finalized.
Britt was elected to the Senate in 2022.
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