U.S. Says $400 Million Payment Was Used to Guarantee American Prisoners' Release

 

by Alex Johnson and Abigail Williams 

The Obama administration acknowledged Thursday that a $400 million cash payment to Iran in January was used as leverage to ensure the release of four U.S. prisoners.

The payment, part of a $1.7 billion settlement of a decades-long legal dispute before an international tribunal in The Hague, was announced on Jan. 17, a day after Tehran freed the four Americans and on the same weekend that U.N. sanctions against Iran were lifted.

The White House and the State Department have strenuously denied Republican accusations that the transaction amounted to paying ransom, insisting that the timing was coincidental. 

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Source: NBC News