The head of Iran’s Basij Organization, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi — using a phrase first introduced by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — warned Jan. 29 that the intention of the United States is to “infiltrate” Iran.

“Today, the enemy has agents of infiltration,” Naghdi said at a gathering of religious singers. According to Naghdi, one of the agents of infiltration was Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who was accused of spying for the United States and was released along with three other Iranian-Americans also held in Iran. Naghdi suggested the United States was so determined to infiltrate Iran that it “is ready even to give back $1.7 billion of blocked money in return for Jason Rezaian.”

Naghdi’s accusation that Rezaian was so crucial to the United States that it exchanged $1.7 billion for him was even picked up in American media. On Jan. 21, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Treasury Department wired the amount “around the same time” as the Iranian-Americans were released. The White House denied the payment was a ransom and said that Iran was given its own funds back that were blocked after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The previous Iranian government had paid the United States $400 million for arms. An additional $1.3 billion was added as interest.

In exchange for the Iranian-Americans released in the prisoner swap, the United States agreed to pardon or commute the sentences of one Iranian and six Iranian-Americans. Most of them were accused of violating sanctions against Iran. Most of them remained in the United States, where they had lived prior to being arrested.