Most people suspected that Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran was terrible, and when the details emerged, only a few Democratic diehards were able to defend it. It’s one of the reasons Donald Trump emphasized his skills as a proven negotiator during his campaign; he explained to audiences just how lopsided and anti-American Obama’s deals were, both regarding free trade and foreign policy.
However, Obama’s poor handling of Iran goes back before that fateful deal. Now it is being revealed that paying out billions of dollars to that Islamic dictatorship for years.
Adam Kredo reports for the Washington Free Beacon:
The Obama administration has paid Iran more than $10 billion in gold, cash, and other assets since 2013, according to Iranian officials, who disclosed that the White House has been intentionally deflating the total amount paid to the Islamic Republic. (…)
The latest disclosure by Iran, which comports with previous claims about the Obama administration obfuscating details about its cash transfers to Iran—including a $1.7 billion cash payment included in a ransom to free Americans—sheds further light on the White House’s back room dealings to bolster Iran’s economy and preserve the Iran nuclear agreement.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi (…) disclosed that the $10 billion figure just scratches the surface of the total amount given to Iran by the United States over the past several years. The $10 billion figure is actually a “stingy” estimate, Ghasemi claimed.
So what possessed the Obama administration to hand billions of dollars of Americans’ tax dollars over to the Iranians? Aren’t they our enemy?
Perhaps there would be some rationale behind it if the money was targeted to providing humanitarian aid (although even that would be dubious.) However, a research analyst for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told the Free Beacon:
“Given the nature of some of this sanctions relief (through the provision of gold and unfrozen assets), this money likely underwrote some of the Islamic Republic’s more destabilizing regional activities.
“At the macro level, all of this continues to prove one larger point: The way the Iran deal was handled and the provision of sanctions relief during and after the talks that led to the nuclear accord continues to create problems for those interested in defending the integrity of the international financial system.”
At least Americans have sound reasons to believe that this bizarre financial arrangement will come to an end shortly after Donald Trump is sworn in as president.
Source: Washington Free Beacon
