WASHINGTON — Republicans are voicing outrage at the Biden administration’s decision to carry out a prisoner exchange with Iran, accusing President Joe Biden of paying a ransom to a world state sponsor of terrorism.
The administration notified Congress on Monday that it has proceeded with the agreement, which has involved issuing a waiver that will give Tehran $6 billion in oil revenue that the U.S. had frozen through sanctions.
Under the agreement, the administration will free five Iranians under detention in the U.S., and in exchange, Iran will release five Americans who have been detained by Tehran.
Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Biden in a post on Tuesday on Truth Social.
“So, lets get this straight! We did a hostage TRADE with Iran. We gave them 5 very tough, smart people that they desperately wanted. We likewise got back 5 people BUT, we also gave them 6 BILLION DOLLARS! How much of a kickback does Crooked Joe Biden get? Does anyone realize how much money 6 Billion Dollars is?”
Trump claimed that when he was president, he secured the release of 58 hostages “for ZERO money.” He said that the new deal sets a “TERRIBLE precedent” and suggested that Republicans should invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Biden from office because he said the president is “INCOMPETENT.”
To move forward with the deal, Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a waiver last week to international banks to allow the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar. The agreement allows Iran to use the funds to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian items allowed by U.S. economic sanctions.
Some Republicans said the administration’s deal will encourage enemies of the U.S. to take more Americans hostage.
“I am always glad when Americans are released from captivity,” tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “However, this agreement will entice rogue regimes, like Iran, to take even more Americans hostage. The ayatollah and his henchmen are terrorists and truly represent a terrorist state.”
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., tweeted, “The U.S. should be unrelenting in its efforts to bring detained Americans home, but Iran will now count pallets of ransom money, putting its leaders in a better position to develop a nuclear weapon and fund terrorists. And the price to release U.S. hostages will only go up.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., chair of the House Republican Conference, tweeted that Biden’s policies are “emboldening our adversaries while putting Americans’ safety and security at risk.” She said that when the contours of the deal were announced, she joined House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, in demanding answers from the administration, but said their request was “ignored.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, alleged in a tweet that Biden had struck a “secret nuclear deal with the Iranian regime” and it’s being “kept from Congress and the American people.”
“The Biden administration must keep their deal secret because if they disclosed it, the law requires them to come to Congress and defend it, and this appeasement is utterly indefensible,” he wrote, without providing evidence for his claims or other details. “Instead they will continue lying about their policies until Congress forces them to do otherwise.”
The administration, however, informed Congress about the steps taken in the deal and said additional briefings are already scheduled for this week.
A number of GOP lawmakers also blasted the administration for disclosing the latest developments on the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
In a statement, McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the agreement “creates a direct incentive for America’s adversaries to conduct future hostage-taking. It’s particularly egregious that this is taking place on the same week as the anniversaries of 9/11 — as Iran is actively harboring the leader of Al Qaeda — and Mahsa Amini’s murder by Iran’s so-called ‘morality police.’ The administration is demonstrating weakness that only further endangers Americans and freedom-loving people around the world.”
“First Joe Biden used 9/11 as an excuse to flee Afghanistan,” tweeted Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. “Now he desecrates this day by paying ransom to the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. Shameful.”
The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were not perpetrated by Iran, but by members of al Qaeda who were mostly Saudi nationals.
The deal is expected to be completed this month, a senior administration official said. A spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, said Monday that “no individuals have been or will be released into U.S. custody this week.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in a new interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt in Tehran that his government will decide how it will spend the $6 billion in previously frozen funds.
Qatar’s central bank will oversee the funds, which Iran will be able to use only for humanitarian purposes, as allowed by U.S. sanctions, U.S. officials have said.
But during the interview, Raisi said that Iran would have “authority” over how the funds would be spent. “This money belongs to the Iranian people, the Iranian government, so the Islamic Republic of Iran will decide what to do with this money,” he said, according to an Iranian government translator.
Neither the White House nor the State Department immediately returned requests for comment about the GOP backlash on Tuesday.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
