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GOP senators suspect Biden admin ‘secretly negotiated a nuclear deal’ with Iran, demand answers

August 22, 2023 | | Print Article

President Biden’s administration announced it would release $6 billion in frozen assets to the Iranians in exchange for five American prisoners and Republicans want to know if it was part of renegotiating a nuke deal.

(Video Credit: Newsmax)

Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) issued a blunt statement on Monday to Biden via a letter.

“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,” wrote the senators.

“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,” they contended.

“We are also worried that your administration is attempting to sidestep Congress and pursue other pathways to financially compensate Iran in an attempt to renegotiate a successor to the ill-fated 2015 nuclear deal. Any agreement with the Iranian regime that entails financial reward for malign behavior is wholly unacceptable,” the senators charged, referring to John Kerry’s failed nuclear brainchild.

The conservative lawmakers also requested an in-person briefing with White House officials on the risk the agreement poses to American citizens overseas and to US national security interests.

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According to The Hill, “Opponents say the deal makes the U.S. look weak and contend the money could end up financing the Iranian military, which has seized American tankers and backed militia groups in Syria that have attacked U.S. troops.”

“Supporters see it as an important trade that would free detained American citizens. And they argue it could lead to more concrete progress with Tehran in the future, such as the revival of the Iran nuclear deal,” the media outlet added.

The five Americans set to be released as part of the deal are being held on 10-year sentences for espionage-related charges. Three have been publicly identified as Siamak Namazi, a businessman, who was arrested in 2015; a venture capitalist named Emad Sharghi who was sentenced in 2020; and Morad Tahbaz, who is also a British national and was arrested in 2018.

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Republicans are blasting the Biden administration for tying their release to the unfreezing of billions of dollars of funds, arguing the move only emboldens Iranian aggression. Former President Trump has said the same thing.

(Video Credit: Forbes Breaking News)

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” that it was naive to think Iran was “not going to have any control over this money.”

“I want to get these Americans home more than anybody,” McCaul asserted. “But we have to go in [with] eyes wide open. [The] $6 billion that now is going to go into Iran [will] prop up their proxy war, terror operations, and their nuclear bomb aspirations.”

(Video Credit: Fox News)

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis charged that the US is “caving to Iran’s blackmail and extortion.”

“Biden is shamefully caving to Iran’s blackmail and extortion. Rewarding Iran for taking Americans hostage incentivizes more hostage-taking. The $6 billion ransom payment will help Iran build nuclear weapons, support terrorism, oppress the Iranian people, and assist Russia. Biden’s appeasement and weakness emboldens Iran to attack us and our allies, and facilitates Iran becoming closer than ever to nuclear weapons,” DeSantis wrote.

“Biden must stop obsessively pursuing disastrous deals that endanger our security. It is time to stand up to Iran with maximum pressure and roll back Iran’s malign influence,” he declared.

(Video Credit: Forbes Breaking News)

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The social media consensus is that the money is going to be used not only for terrorism but corruption as well:

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