Tipsheet

Blinken Makes a Big Admission About Iran After Administration Officials Hopelessly Try to Spin $6B Deal

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  October 09, 2023 7:30 AM

A State Department spokesperson addressed criticism about the recent deal to unfreeze Iranian assets in exchange for U.S. hostages in the wake of the attack on Iran, claiming the $6 billion “had nothing to do” with Hamas terrorists infiltrating the country over the weekend. 

After condemning the attack, spokesman Matthew Miller argued that “not a penny has been spent” of the funds, “and when it is, it can only go for humanitarian needs like food and medicine. Anything to the contrary is false.” 

The comment, which other administration officials repeated nearly verbatim, came after several Republican presidential candidates and conservative commentators argued the opposite, and made their disagreement with Miller known.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also asked about this on the Sunday shows, where he finally admitted that "Iran has unfortunately always used and focused its funds on supporting terrorism."

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS:  As you know, many in the GOP are laying blame on the Biden administration in the wake of that recent deal to unfreeze Iranian assets that were unfrozen for humanitarian purposes in return for the release of those American hostages.  Here’s what Steve Scalise, one of the candidates for speaker, put out yesterday:

“The Biden administration must be held accountable for its appeasement of these Hamas terrorists, including handing over billions of dollars to them and their Iranian backers.”

Your response?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, look, I’m not going to comment on specific comments by individuals.  I can say this:  It’s unfortunate that some are, in effect, saying things that may be motivated by politics at a time when so many lives have been lost and Israel remains under attack.

And the facts are these and should be well known:  This involved Iranian resources, not American taxpayer dollars; these were resources that Iran had acquired from the sale of its oil that were stuck in a bank, in this case in South Korea.  They have always been entitled to use those funds under our law and under our sanctions for humanitarian purposes, and the funds were moved from one bank to another to facilitate that.  By the way, not a single dollar from that account has actually been spent to date, and in any event it’s very carefully and closely regulated by the Treasury Department to make sure that it’s only used for food, for medicine, for medical equipment.

So, some who are advancing this false narrative, they’re either misinformed or they’re misinforming, and either way it’s wrong.


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