So was Donald Trump right after all when he said Iran was getting “an amazing deal” from the U.S.? A deal he’s vowed to “tear up” should he become president?
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night that the U.S. secretly airlifted $400 million in cash — “wooden pallets stacked with Euros, Swiss Francs, and other currencies” — to the Iranians just as Iran was releasing four American prisoners, including the Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.
At the time the Obama administration insisted the prisoners got their walking papers free of any ransom or other agreement — an assertion Tuesday’s report casts into doubt. While the White House says the money was merely the first installment of the controversial $1.7 billion settlement the Obama Administration negotiated in return for Iran abandoning its nuclear program, the timeline smells much of ransom.
The fact that the $400 million cash dump was made with foreign currency makes it even stranger – any transaction with US dollars is illegal.
Members of Congress, including Sen. Tom Cotton, known for his hawkish approach to Iran, have voiced criticism in response to the news, accusing the administration of negotiating with a hostile entity, known to be financing Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s brutal war on his own people.
“They’ve paid “a $1.7 billion ransom to the ayatollahs for U.S. hostages,” Cotton told the WSJ. “This break with longstanding U.S. policy put a price on the head of Americans, and has led Iran to continue its illegal seizures.”
Worse still – at least for the White House – it’s likely this news proves Donald Trump’s point on the Iran deal, which the Republican nominee has often said he would “tear up” on day one. Speaking about the administration’s dealings with the foreign power, Trump has often said that “[Iran is] laughing at the stupidity of the deal we’re making on nuclear.”
“We should double up and triple up the sanctions and have them come to us,” he told audiences in April, before sealing up the Republican nomination. “They are making an amazing deal.”
He even, occasionally, has used the Iran deal as an example of how not to handle complex negotiations.
In negotiation, you must be willing to walk. The Iran deal, like so many of our worst agreements, is the result of not being willing to leave the table. When the other side knows you’re not going to walk, it becomes absolutely impossible to win.
Wednesday morning, he used the prisoner exchange to go after Hillary Clinton specifically, blaming her incompetence for the mess.
According to the Washington Post, experts on Iran agree with Donald Trump on the Iranian deal as a whole. And given that Iran made $400 million for a four-prisoner exchange, Donald Trump is probably very satisfied in his own analysis of the Iran deal – particularly his admonition that Obama-era foreign policy has failed to be “clear-sighted about the groups that will never be anything other than enemies.”
Trump has also been harshly critical of Hillary Clinton’s role in brokering the Iran deal.
Meanwhile, Iran appears to be laughing all the way to the bank.