Iran Warns it May Defy Biden’s Prisoner Exchange Terms

The predictable defiance presents new problems in an already thorny issue for President Joe Biden and gives new fodder to his political foes.

By Paul D. Shinkman

Iran on Friday suggested it might not abide by the strict terms of a deal the Biden administration is trying to broker to free several Americans held prisoner there in exchange for eventually releasing $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds.

The deal would allow the release of the five Americans – who moved from prison to house arrest earlier this week – in exchange for moving $6 billion impounded in South Korea to a central bank in Qatar, which will only dispense the funds if Iran can show it plans to use them for humanitarian purchases, such as food or medicine.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry blasted the original seizure of its assets as “unlawful” and a part of “cruel sanctions imposed by the United States.” But it went further on Friday to say it won’t necessarily restrict itself to the terms that the Biden administration has relied on to justify the politically risky move of publicly negotiating with a state sponsor of terrorism.

“The decision on how to utilize these unfrozen resources and financial assets lies with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the ministry said in a statement early Friday, noting that the deal also calls for the release of Iranians currently held in detention in the U.S. “The competent authorities will allocate these resources to address the various needs of the country.”

Tehran’s resistance – while risking blowing up the tentative arrangement – aligns with its historic practice of publicly defying the bloc of world powers that has worked to contain it, chiefly the U.S., its allies in Europe and Israel.

But the latest defiance presents new problems in an already thorny issue for President Joe Biden, who has prioritized the repatriation of Americans illegally detained abroad but will now also give new fodder to his political foes – particularly those vying to take the White House in 2024.

Several Republican opponents of the president dismissed the nuances of the arrangement and said it amounts only to a ransom payment, strengthening Iran’s ability to suppress its people and fund hostile operations overseas.

“While I welcome the release of American hostages, the American people should know that @POTUS Biden has authorized the largest ransom payment in American history to the Mullahs in Tehran,” former Vice President Mike Pence, currently at the bottom of the polls for the Republican nomination for president, wrote on social media.

Mike Pompeo, one of the most vocal Iran hawks in the Trump administration, blasted the prospective decision with his own post late Thursday.

“Releasing $6 billion to the butchers in Tehran just so American hostages can go to a different type of prison is a terrible deal,” the former secretary of state and CIA director wrote. “Iran shouldn't profit from holding Americans hostage.”

Officials in the last presidential administration, including 2024 Republican front-runner Donald Trump, frequently slammed the Obama White House for “giving” Iran $150 billion – a misrepresentation of Iranian assets tied up in overseas projects to which it might have regained access as a result of a 2015 deal governing the cessation of its nuclear program. Trump unilaterally walked away from the deal in a move he touted as one of his central foreign policy achievements.

White House officials this week have staunchly opposed framing the prisoner exchange as a ransom payment for hostages. Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz have all been detained on unsubstantiated charges of espionage. The families of the two other detained Americans have withheld their names.

“This is not a ransom,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told CNN. “The account from which money could be accessed by the Iranians is an account set up in the previous administration that allowed other countries to import non-sanctionable goods.”

“What we're talking about is the possibility of making that one account that has been in existence for several years more accessible to the Iranians,” Kirby added. “But they can only pull from that account for humanitarian purposes, and there is an oversight mechanism that's already built into that process. So it's not ransom.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the prisoners’ relocation from jail to house arrest – brokered through Swiss intermediaries – as a “positive step” but acknowledged the U.S. still faces several obstacles to securing their release.

“My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare,” Blinken told reporters on Thursday.

“Iran will not be receiving any sanctions relief,” Blinken added. “Iran’s own funds would be used and transferred to restricted accounts such that the monies can only be used for humanitarian purposes, which, as you know, is permitted under our sanctions.”

State Department officials spoke with the prisoners on Thursday, he said.

“I think they’re – needless to say – very happy to be out of prison, but we want to make sure that we complete this process and bring them home to their families,” Blinken said.