Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has indicated his government will fully decide how it uses the $6 billion in funds that President Joe Biden’s administration has agreed to unfreeze in exchange for the release of five U.S. citizens held in Iran.
In an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, the Iranian president said the unfrozen money “belongs to the Iranian people, the Iranian government, so the Islamic Republic of Iran will decide what to do with this money.” The Iranian president added that the funds will go “wherever we need it.”
Mr. Raisi’s comments about the funds appear to conflict with what Biden administration officials have said about the deal.
In an Aug. 22 press statement, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration will supervise the use of the frozen assets they will release to ensure “that those funds are spent on non-sanctionable transactions.”
When asked during his interview with NBC specifically about a commitment that the Iranian government will only use the funds for humanitarian purposes, Mr. Raisi said, “‘Humanitarian’ means whatever the Iranian people need, so this money will be budgeted for those needs, and the needs of the Iranian people will be decided and determined by the Iranian government.”
The hostage release deal has yet to be finalized. Last month, the Iranian government said it had moved the five U.S. hostages from a prison to a house arrest setting as an intermediate step before their full release.
In his comments on Tuesday, Mr. Raisi said the arrangements for the hostage release deal have been made, and the transfer should go through “in due time.” The Iranian side further claimed that the prisoners were in good health.
Hostage Deal Faces Criticism at Home
Mr. Raisi’s comments about how the Iranian government will spend the $6 billion in unfrozen assets could complicate a deal that has already seen backlash from both Republicans and Democrats.
On a Monday post on the X social media platform, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) suggested the freed-up Iranian assets could be used to advance a nuclear weapons program or fund terrorist organizations.
“The U.S. should be unrelenting in its efforts to bring detained Americans home, but Iran will now count pallets of ransom money, putting its leaders in a better position to develop a nuclear weapon and fund terrorists. And the price to release U.S. hostages will only go up,” said Mr. Thune.
In his own comments to reporters on Monday, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) expressed concerns that the deal will incentivize hostage-taking, with hostile nations concluding that they stand to regain billions in frozen assets from the U.S. in exchange for eventually setting U.S. hostages free.
“This is an example of why we have to go ahead and make it very clear to Americans that they cannot travel to certain places in the world where they are likely to ultimately become a hostage,” Mr. Memendez said Monday.
“Until we do that, we will constantly be in a set of circumstances where the United States faces negotiations to free detained Americans.”
Trump Weighs In
In a Tuesday post on his Truth social media platform, former President Donald Trump said the decision to release the frozen Iranian assets “sets a TERRIBLE precedent.”
President Trump—who was unseated by President Biden in the 2020 election and who is running to take back the White House in 2024—also said, “Biden is INCOMPETENT!” for allowing the hostage release deal.
NTD News reached out to the White House for comment about the hostage deal but did not receive a response by the time this article was published.