The US government secretly airlifted $400 million in cash to Iran at the same time as the release in January of four Americans detained in the Islamic Republic, the Wall Street Journal says.
The report cites US and European officials and congressional staff briefed on the operation after it was completed.
The money, in euros, Swiss francs and other currencies, was flown to Iran stacked on wooden pallets. It had been procured from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland, according to the report.
Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, center, appears with his wife Yeganeh Salehi and mother Mary Reazaian in Germany on January 20, 2016, following his release from Iranian custody (screen capture: YouTube)
The money was part of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran over a failed arms deal signed in 1979, before the fall of Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
In his announcement of the settlement, immediately after the release of the American hostages in Iran — including the Washington Post’s Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian — President Barack Obama did not mention the cash payment.
— JTA
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