Secretary of State Antony Blinken notified Congress on Monday of a waiver that will let German, Irish, Qatari, South Korean, and Swiss banks transfer the $6 billion from South Korea without fear of running afoul of US sanctions.
He said the $6 billion would be held in restricted accounts in Qatar, where it will be “available only for humanitarian trade,” the notification read.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said, “Can you believe that Crooked Joe Biden is giving $6 Billion to the terrorist regime in Iran? That money be used for terrorism all over the Middle East, and, indeed, the World.”
Trump even called US President Joe Biden ‘incompetent’ and accused him of ‘destroying America’.
“This incompetent FOOL is absolutely destroying America. He had the audacity to announce this terrible deal today, September 11th. To pay for hostages will lead to kidnapping, ransom, and blackmail against Americans across the globe,” Trump said.
“I freed many dozens of our people from various unfriendly countries and never paid a dime!” the Republican candidate running for the 2024 US presidential elections added.
On Monday, an Iranian government spokesman said that he expected the transfer of frozen funds to be completed in the next few days.
In an official statement, Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said “What is being pursued here is an arrangement wherein we secure the release of five wrongfully held Americans.
American officials had announced the broad outlines of the deal in early August after Iran moved four US citizens from prison to house arrest. The American prisoners include Siamak Namazi, who has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since October 2015.
