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| Lawmaker Probes Biden Admin's Role in $1 Billion Ransom Payment to Iran |
| 2021-03-10 |
| [Free Beacon] U.S. reportedly waived sanctions to facilitate payment to Tehran A Republican lawmaker on the House Financial Services Committee is pressing the Biden administration to come clean about its suspected role in facilitating a $1 billion ransom payment to Iran as part of an effort to secure the release of a South Korean oil tanker that Tehran has been holding hostage. Rep. Bryan Steil (R., Wis.) petitioned Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday to immediately provide him and other lawmakers with information about the reported U.S. role in waiving terrorism sanctions on Iran so that South Korea could complete the billion-dollar payment. South Korea has been locked in a dispute with Tehran over its January seizure of an oil tanker and its 20-member crew. Iran is using the tanker as leverage to pressure South Korea into freeing some $7 billion in oil revenues that are tied up in the country as a result of American sanctions. "It would be gravely concerning if the United States waived terrorism-related sanctions on Iran to facilitate a ransom payment by South Korea without consulting Congress," Steil wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon. The letter is the latest sign of mounting GOP frustration with the Biden administration’s diplomacy with Iran and efforts to cajole the country into negotiating over its growing nuclear program. Both the State and Treasury Departments have avoided briefing members of Congress, particularly on the Republican side, about their diplomacy and surrounding efforts to decrease pressure on Iran as part of a bid to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table. With Republicans in the minority, there is little they can do to block team Biden from rejoining the nuclear agreement with Iran, which former president Donald Trump abandoned in 2018. But members like Steil say Congress deserves to be fully briefed on these efforts. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #2 Bryan Steil- did not hang himself |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2021-03-10 06:24 |
| #1 Amateur hour |
| Posted by: Jolugum Snelet3182 2021-03-10 03:22 |