$400M for Iran was held until prisoners' release: US

By Esra Kaymak Avci

WASHINGTON

The State Department said Thursday $400 million in cash paid to Iran as part of the nuclear deal signed last year was used as "leverage" against Tehran to ensure the American prisoners were first released.

"We deliberately leveraged that moment to finalize these outstanding issues nearly simultaneously," State Department spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing, referring to the same timing of the implementation of the nuclear deal and the U.S. prisoners' release by Iran.

According to Kirby, due to the U.S.'s concerns that Iran may "renege" on the prisoner release and a "mutual mistrust between Iran and the U.S.”, Washington held the $400 million until American prisoners were released.

The spokesman insisted that the money was not a quid pro quo for prisoner release, saying that Tehran would eventually have received the money unrelated to the prisoner's release.

Kirby's comments come after The Wall Street Journal published a story Thursday that said the money was held by the U.S. until the prisoners were released.

The Wall Street Journal had reported earlier in August that the Obama administration secretly orchestrated an airlift of $400 million in cash to Iran last January when four Americans were released from Iranian custody.

The funds were linked to a $1.7 billion settlement between the United States and Iran stemming from a failed arms deal with exiled Iranian monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The military equipment was not delivered to Iran following the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Since the release of the prisoners, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, the U.S. administration has said that the exchange was a coincidence with the implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran.