U.S. House of Representatives Passes Bill Prohibiting Cash Payments to Iran

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that prohibits any cash payments to Iran and requires the U.S. government to notify Congress before settling financial claims with Iran.

According to the Associated Press, the bill passed in the House of Representatives with a significant margin of 254 votes in favor versus 163 votes against.

The Republican Party holds the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The party has been critical of the Barack Obama administration’s policies toward Iran and the nuclear agreement with the country.

According to the report, the passage of this bill is a response to the issue of paying $1.7 billion in cash to Iran following the implementation of the nuclear agreement. In recent weeks, Republicans have described the payment to Iran as a form of “ransom” to Tehran.

This comes as the White House states that the payment was made to settle a legal dispute between Tehran and Washington over an arms deal during the Shah’s regime.

The principal amount of $400 million from this contract was sent to Tehran on January 17 of this year in euros, Swiss francs, and other foreign currencies in wooden boxes, coinciding with the release of Iranian-American prisoners held in Iranian prisons via aircraft. The $1.3 billion in interest accrued from the settlement of this contract was also paid in cash to Iran on January 22 and February 5.

Republicans argue that cash payments, which are untraceable, sent to a country at the top of the list of state sponsors of terrorism, enable this money to be used to finance terrorism around the world.

Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and author of this bill, stated: “Untraceable cash is cash, and cash is in effect the currency of terrorists.”

Reports indicate that the bill contains an amendment that prohibits any cash payments to state sponsors of terrorism, including North Korea, without Congressional approval.

For the bill to become law, it must also be approved by the U.S. Senate and signed by the President of the United States.

This comes as the White House previously announced that if the bill passes in Congress, Barack Obama, the President of the United States, would veto it.

The U.S. President said last month at a press conference at the Pentagon that the reason cash was given to Iran was “because we couldn’t send them a check or wire the money to their account. We have no banking relationship with Tehran, which is part of the pressure we have placed on them.”

Democratic representatives who opposed the bill rejected the accusation that the payment to Iran was “ransom” and accused Republicans of attempting to exploit the issue for political gain.

Source: Radio Farda