Foreign Affairs panel approves bill prohibiting cash payments to Iran
WASHINGTON — In an election-year broadside, the Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee approved legislation Wednesday to prohibit the United States from making cash payments to Iran and require that Congress be notified before any future claims settlements with Tehran are conducted.
Passage of the bill on a 21-16 vote comes a week after the Obama administration acknowledged it paid Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year to settle a decades-old arbitration claim between the two countries.
An initial $400 million delivery of euros, Swiss francs and other foreign currency was delivered on pallets on Jan. 17, the same day Tehran agreed to release four American prisoners. The remaining $1.3 billion was paid in cash installments made on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5, administration officials said last week in a closed-door briefing for congressional staff.
Republicans have decried the payments as ransom, a charge the Obama administration has rejected. Citing Iran’s status as a leading state sponsor of terrorism, Republicans have also contended the money will be used to finance terrorism around the world.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Ed Royce of California, said President Barack Obama made it easier for Iran to funnel money to Hezbollah and other terrorist groups by delivering Tehran virtually untraceable cash.
“We are basically doing their money laundering for them, in a sense,” Royce said.
Obama said last month at a Pentagon news conference that cash was delivered “because we couldn’t send them a check and we couldn’t wire the money. We don’t have a banking relationship with Iran which is part of the pressure we applied on them.”
But Royce said he recently learned the administration used a bank wire to send Iran $8.6 million for 32 metric tons of heavy water. The deal, announced in April, was aimed at helping Iran meet the terms of last year’s landmark deal in which Iran agreed to curb its atomic program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Wednesday GOP lawmakers never imagined a bill prohibiting cash payments to Iran would be necessary.