Well, well, well. Looks like this wasn’t a done deal after all, eh?
What took them so long?
The United States and Qatar have agreed to block Iran’s access to $6 billion in funds recently transferred to the nation as part of a deal between Washington and Tehran that led to the release of five imprisoned Americans from Iran last month.
Wally Adeyemo, the deputy Treasury secretary, told House Democrats on Thursday that Iran would no longer have access to the funds, according to a person familiar with the matter. The money was under close supervision and strict conditions that it be used only for humanitarian purposes.
The move comes amid harsh criticism, mainly from Republicans, that the Biden administration gave Iran access to a vast sum that freed up other funds for Tehran to provide support to Hamas before its attack on Israel over the weekend.
Initially, it mainly came from Americans. Over the last couple of days, it started coming from Democrats, led initially by Jon Tester and Joe Manchin. It started gaining steam yesterday in the Senate Democrat caucus with others. The Biden administration tried to play defense by opening up a phony “investigation” into Iran’s Hamas ties, likely hoping to generate a pretext for reneging on the asset transfer.
As I predicted yesterday, the White House appears to have found enough of a pretext to refreeze access to the funds. The question will be how long that freeze will continue:
It is unclear whether the Biden administration intends to cut off the funds permanently or may be taking an interim step as it gathers more information about Iran’s potential ties to Hamas. It is also unclear whether the action reflects any new analysis by the administration about Iran’s role in the attack. Regardless, it is certain to infuriate Iran’s leadership after a painstaking prisoner swap that took many months to construct and weeks more to complete.
Boo freaking hoo. If all this Hamas operation costs Iran is $6 billion, they should consider themselves lucky. Israel has its hands full with Gaza at the moment, but don’t think for a moment that the Mossad will forget to settle the score with Tehran. Only through such disincentives will the message get through to the mullahs.
In the meantime, we have a lesson to learn ourselves: Don’t pay the Dane-geld. It’s not always going to be this easy to get it back.
Read the full article here