The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)

Secret Obama-era permit let Iran convert funds to dollars

- By Josh Lederman and Matthew Lee

WASHINGTON » After striking an elusive nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administra­tion found itself in a quandary in early 2016: Iran had been promised access to its long-frozen overseas reserves, including $5.7 billion stuck in an Omani bank.

To spend it, Iran wanted to convert the money into U.S. dollars and then euros, but top U.S. officials had repeatedly promised Congress that Iran would never gain access to America’s financial system.

Those assurances notwithsta­nding, the Obama administra­tion secretly issued a license to let Iran sidestep U.S. sanctions for the brief moment required to convert the funds through an American bank, an investigat­ion by Senate Republican­s released Wednesday showed. The plan failed when two U.S. banks refused to participat­e.

Yet two years later, the revelation is re-igniting the bitter debate over the nuclear deal and whether former President Barack Obama was too eager to grant concession­s to Tehran.

“The Obama administra­tion misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran,” said Sen. Rob Portman, ROhio, who chairs the Senate panel that conducted the investigat­ion.

And Republican Rep. Ed Royce, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, accused Obama of trying to “hide a secret push to give the ayatollah access to the U.S. dollar.”

Not so, former Obama administra­tion officials said, arguing the decision to grant the license adhered to the spirt of the deal, which included allowing Iran to regain access to foreign reserves that had been off-limits because of U.S. sanctions. They said the public assurances that Iran would be kept out were intended to dispel incorrect reports about nonexisten­t proposals that would have gone much farther by letting Iran actually buy or sell things in dollars.

The former Obama officials disputed that the momentary access to U.S. banks to convert funds through the dollar constitute­d “access to the U.S. financial system.” What’s more, they dismissed the report as another example of a faulty approach to Iran policy by Republican­s and by President Donald Trump, who last month withdrew the U.S. from the landmark 2015 nuclear accord.

“They continue to malign the deal in an effort to justify President Trump’s unjustifia­ble decision,” said Ned Price, who was Obama’s White House National Security Council spokesman, referring to GOP lawmakers.

Still, the report by the Senate Permanent Subcommitt­ee on Investigat­ions sheds light on the delicate balance the Obama administra­tion sought to strike after the deal, as it worked to ensure Iran received its promised benefits without playing into the hands of the deal’s opponents. Amid a tense political climate, Iran hawks in the U.S., Israel and elsewhere argued that the United States was giving far too much to Tehran and that the windfall would be used to fund extremism and other troubling Iranian activity.

 ?? JOHN MINCHILLO - THE AP ?? In this April 16 file photo, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, speaks during a news conference in Cincinnati. The Obama administra­tion secretly sought to give Iran brief access to the U.S. financial system by sidesteppi­ng sanctions kept in place after the 2015...
JOHN MINCHILLO - THE AP In this April 16 file photo, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, speaks during a news conference in Cincinnati. The Obama administra­tion secretly sought to give Iran brief access to the U.S. financial system by sidesteppi­ng sanctions kept in place after the 2015...

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