BREAKING: US, Qatar refreeze $6 billion in Iran hostage payment

[Eupher]

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2023/10/12/auto-draft-193-2-n584392

Well, well, well. Looks like this wasn’t a done deal after all, eh?

What took them so long?

The United States and Qatar have agreed to block Iran’s access to $6 billion in funds recently transferred to the nation as part of a deal between Washington and Tehran that led to the release of five imprisoned Americans from Iran last month.

Wally Adeyemo, the deputy Treasury secretary, told House Democrats on Thursday that Iran would no longer have access to the funds, according to a person familiar with the matter. The money was under close supervision and strict conditions that it be used only for humanitarian purposes.

The move comes amid harsh criticism, mainly from Republicans, that the Biden administration gave Iran access to a vast sum that freed up other funds for Tehran to provide support to Hamas before its attack on Israel over the weekend.

Initially, it mainly came from Americans. Over the last couple of days, it started coming from Democrats, led initially by Jon Tester and Joe Manchin. It started gaining steam yesterday in the Senate Democrat caucus with others. The Biden administration tried to play defense by opening up a phony “investigation” into Iran’s Hamas ties, likely hoping to generate a pretext for reneging on the asset transfer.

As I predicted yesterday, the White House appears to have found enough of a pretext to refreeze access to the funds. The question will be how long that freeze will continue:

It is unclear whether the Biden administration intends to cut off the funds permanently or may be taking an interim step as it gathers more information about Iran’s potential ties to Hamas. It is also unclear whether the action reflects any new analysis by the administration about Iran’s role in the attack. Regardless, it is certain to infuriate Iran’s leadership after a painstaking prisoner swap that took many months to construct and weeks more to complete.

Boo freaking hoo. If all this Hamas operation costs Iran is $6 billion, they should consider themselves lucky. Israel has its hands full with Gaza at the moment, but don’t think for a moment that the Mossad will forget to settle the score with Tehran. Only through such disincentives will the message get through to the mullahs.

In the meantime, we have a lesson to learn ourselves: Don’t pay the Dane-geld. It’s not always going to be this easy to get it back.

I found it staggering that Blinken and his State Department buffoons actually defended SharterJoe's decision to release that money, knowing full well that it would be used to fund terrorism. They like to lie and say that the money was only to be used for humanitarian purposes, but are SharterJoe and his thugs so stupid as to believe a word that comes out of Iranian leadership mouths? Uh...I'll take that as a yes - they are that stupid.

So much so that they backpedal, given the blowback they've received. I found it amazing to learn that the money had not yet actually been released, and SharterJoe's cretins actually used that fact to defend themselves.   

[Old n Grumpy]

Irans idea of humanitarian purposes is destroying
Israel and funding terrorism

[Happy Fun Ball]

Now we just need Qatar (and that's 'ka-tar', not 'cut-ter') to cough up all of those Hamas leaders there.

[Drafe Hoblin]

The likes of Blinken and Fox's Jennifer Griffin think we're stupid.  She was blocking her followers on X who were immediately pointing-out that the money was fungible, contrary to her shabbily-sourced reporting as of late.

[Eupher]

The likes of Blinken and Fox's Jennifer Griffin think we're stupid.  She was blocking her followers on X who were immediately pointing-out that the money was fungible, contrary to her shabbily-sourced reporting as of late.

Blinken is a world-class moron, having had his ass handed to him by the Chicoms in Alaska not long after he was installed as SecState. His handling of the A-stan bugout was staggering in its stupidity, overshadowed only by SharterJoe's idiocy in insisting on that timing.

But I gotta say, Blinken was truly bugeyed when he reported in Israel yesterday in a presser of the impact the slaughter the Hamas enacted on children, babies, Israeli civilians had on him. He was effectively speechless and while I applaud his showing his humanity, there should be no doubt in anybody's mind that Antony Blinken is a shining example of the Peter Principle in action.

[SVPete]

When Iran squeals about their "stolen" money I'll consider believing this was actually done.