The White House insisted Thursday that Iran has not accessed any of the $6 billion released as part of a prisoner exchange with Tehran, despite reports that the U.S. and Qatar are mulling stopping Iran from touching the funds.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the funds remain in a Qatar bank, but declined to say if there was a formal pause on the money.
Instead, Mr. Kirby maintained that the entire $6 billion has not been accessed since it was transferred to the Qatar bank from South Korea as part of a deal that freed five Americans being held hostage in Iran.
Despite repeatedly being pressed by reporters on whether the U.S. has blocked Iran’s access to the funds or if Iran just simply hasn’t accessed them, Mr. Kirby refused to answer the question.
“I’m not going to talk about diplomatic conversations one way or another,” Mr. Kirby said. “What I can tell you is every single dime of that money is sitting in the Qatari bank. Not one dime of it has been spent.”
Mr. Kirby said he was unwilling to talk about “any changes to policy that may have taken place within the past 24 hours” even as reporters pushed for answers about whether Iran is blocked from accessing the funds.
“I’m not going to speculate one way or another here about future transactions,” he said. “What I can tell you is none of it has been accessed, and we are watching every dime.”
The Biden administration has come under fire for the $6 billion since Hamas launched a surprise terror attack on Israel over the weekend, killing more than 1,200 people.
Iran is a principal backer of Hamas, and some news outlets including the Wall Street Journal have reported that Tehran played a role in planning the Hamas attack. U.S. officials have disputed that reporting, saying their intelligence so far has not found any direct links to Iran and the terror attack.
Critics, including Democrats and Republicans, have claimed that the $6 billion enabled Iran to free up funds elsewhere to carry out terrorism such as Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Multiple media outlets have reported that Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told House Democrats that Iran would no longer have access to the funds.
Mr. Kriby said that the administration’s critics are wrong because Iran’s use of the funds would be subject to strict oversight. However, he did not provide any details on how the funds would be monitored.
“None of it has been accessed by Iran at all, and even if they had accessed it, it wouldn’t go to the regime,” Kirby said. “It would go to approved vendors that we approved to go buy food, medicine, medical equipment, agricultural products and ship it into Iran directly to the benefit of the Iranian people.”
The White House has repeatedly insisted the money did not come from U.S. taxpayers, but rather from South Korean oil purchases to Iran from a deal struck during the Trump administration.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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