12:06 p.m.
Sunday, August 21, 2016 12:09 pm
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MANCHESTER, NH - Congressman Frank Guinta, N.H.-1, issued the following statement, after the State Department contradicted President Obama's claim that no ransom had been paid to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages:
"What is clearly a ransom payment to terrorists underscores the Administration's dangerous approach to negotiations with the Ayatollah, the Taliban and more radical Islamists who want just one thing: 'Death to America.' Iran, understanding the President will bend over backwards to appease the regime, has already taken more hostages. Since the President helped pave the way to an Iranian nuclear weapon, the regime has test-fired ballistic missiles, threatened the U.S. and our allies, and expanded its influence across the Middle East. The White House also admitted its payments are probably funding the aggression. The President's denials compound the problem, demonstrating that we need new, serious leadership."
The Wall Street Journal revealed suspicious timing of a $400 million payment to Iranian authorities, coinciding with a prisoner exchange in January. In a press conference, Obama said, "We have a policy that we don't pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow start now, in this high-profile way, and announce it to the world, even as we're looking in the faces of other hostage families whose loved ones are being held hostage, and saying to them we don't pay ransom, defies logic."
A State Department spokesman later conceded the cash payment in foreign currency was contingent on the release of four hostages. In Congress, Rep. Guinta, a Financial Services Committee member, oversees economic sanctions on Iran. He voted against the Iranian nuclear deal and voted to restore sanctions, bar Iran from the U.S. financial system, and prevent U.S. assistance to its nuclear program.