Trump weighs releasing billions to Iran after blasting past payments
As mediators scramble to broker a peace deal, a key hurdle remains the release of Iranian assets frozen under US sanctions.
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WASHINGTON — Efforts to end the war with Iran have stalled in part over its demand that the United States release billions in frozen overseas assets, leaving President Donald Trump weighing a move he once sharply criticized.
“The dumbest deal perhaps I’ve ever seen in the history of deal-making,” is how Trump once referred to President Barack Obama’s 2016 decision to authorize a $1.7 billion payment to Iran. Officially, the release of funds settled a decades-old debt over undelivered military equipment to Iran but was widely understood as a concession to secure the release of four detained Americans.
The $1.7 billion, the first $400 million of which was loaded onto wooden pallets and flown to Tehran, sparked an uproar among Republicans. Before he became Trump’s top diplomat, Sen. Marco Rubio condemned Obama's "illicit ransom payment” to the world’s leading sponsor of terror.
