Did the US Send Iran $400 Million in Exchange for Hostages?

After 14 months of secret negotiations between Tehran and Washington, the Iranian government released four American hostages last January. The hostages, which included a former Marine and a Washington Post reporter, had been held in Iran for years on trumped-up charges. At the time, the negotiations and the subsequent release of the hostages were hailed as a new milestone in American-Iranian relations.

However, the nature of that event is now being called into question after several U.S. and European officials revealed what really happened that day. According to the Wall Street Journal, these sources are claiming that the US sent Iran a pallet of cash that consisted of $400 million on the day those hostages were released.

The pallet contained no dollars, but was instead filled with Swiss Francs, Euros, and other foreign currencies. The money was sent to Iran on an unmarked cargo plane, and the Obama Administration made no mention of the delivery.

Which doesn’t really make any sense. The money was supposedly the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement. Iran claimed that our government owed them because of a failed arms deal signed just before the Shah was deposed in 1979. None of that was a secret, so what’s there to hide?

That’s why the $1.7 billion settlement is starting to look more and more like a ransom payment for American citizens. State Department spokesman John Kirby has denied those claims, and has said that the hostage negotiation and the arms deal negotiation were completely separate, and the timing of the cash delivery was merely a coincidence. However, US officials have admitted that the Iranian negotiators for the prison exchange wanted something tangible before they’d let the hostages go.

Also, several Iranian defense officials have referred to the cash delivery as a ransom payment on Iranian television. Was this cash really a part of the $1.7 billion settlement?