The administration of the President of the United States, Joe Biden has concluded plans for the release of no fewer than five American citizens detained in Iran by issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6bn in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of sanctions.
As part of the deal, the administration has additionally agreed to release no fewer than five Iranian citizens held in the US.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on the sanctions waivers late last week, a month after US and Iranian officials said an agreement in principle was in place. Congress was not informed of the waiver decision until Monday, according to the notification, which was sighted by Africa Today News, New York on Tuesday.
The waiver was anticipated because the general terms of the agreement had already been disclosed. However, the announcement that five Iranian inmates will be freed as part of the agreement represented the first time the administration made that claim. The names of the detainees are unknown.
Republicans and others who believe the agreement will strengthen Iran’s economy at a time when that nation poses a greater threat to US soldiers and partners in the Middle East criticised the waiver.
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On X, the platform (formerly known as Twitter), Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said: “It’s ridiculous for US to be blackmailed into paying $6B for hostages which will help indirectly finance the number 1 foreign policy of Iran: terrorism.”
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, meanwhile, accused Biden of “paying ransom to the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism”.
The waiver means that European, Middle Eastern and Asian banks will not run afoul of US sanctions in converting the money frozen in South Korea and transferring it to Qatar’s central bank, where it will be held for Iran to use for the purchase of humanitarian goods.
The transfer of the $6bn was the critical element in the prisoner release deal, which saw four of the five American detainees transferred from Iranian jails into house arrest last month. The fifth detainee had already been under house arrest.
Due to numerous US sanctions on foreign banks that engage in transactions aimed at benefitting Iran, several European countries had baulked at participating in the transfer. Blinken’s waiver is aimed at easing their concerns about any risk of US sanctions.
People familiar with negotiations said they expect the detainees will be released as early as next week.
The American prisoners include Siamak Namazi, who was detained in 2015 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison on internationally criticised spying charges; Emad Sharghi, a venture capitalist sentenced to 10 years; and Morad Tahbaz, a British-American conservationist of Iranian descent who was arrested in 2018 and also received a 10-year sentence. The fourth and fifth prisoners were not identified.
“To facilitate their release, the United States has committed to release five Iranian nationals currently held in the United States and to permit the transfer of approximately $6 billion in restricted Iranian funds held in [South Korea] to restricted accounts in Qatar, where the funds will be available only for humanitarian trade,” Blinken wrote.
The sanctions waiver applies to banks and other financial institutions in South Korea, Germany, Ireland, Qatar and Switzerland.