In exchange for releasing 6 billion dollars of Iranian reserves and probably other unstated considerations, which I would speculate what also include supplying Russian loitering munitions
Not disagreeing about money for hostages, but found the below to be interesting… the Qatari have become more engaged (than I can remember) in diplomatic mission. “The United States will also transfer nearly $6 billion of Iran’s existing assets in South Korea, putting the funds into an account in the central bank of Qatar, according to the people familiar with the deal. The account will be controlled by the government of Qatar and regulated so Iran can gain access to the money only to pay vendors for humanitarian purchases such as medicine and food, they said.”
Understood, but has always happened, along with disproportionate prisoner swaps. Not just by the US, but all wealthy nations. In this case, I suspect there is also some non public parts of the agreement having to do with aiding Russia in Ukraine.
More details from Laura Rozen Experts on the negotiations rejected criticism of the deal as misinformed or disingenuous. “The Biden administration is merely conforming its policy to existing U.S. sanctions laws that exempt humanitarian trade,” Ali Vaez, director of the Iran program at the International Crisis Group, said. “Iran should have been able to use its restricted assets abroad to buy food and medicine all along. The reason it wasn’t is overcompliance by international banks, which fret over falling afoul of Washington’s complex sanctions regime.” A western official familiar with the deal explained: All we’re doing is moving the money from Korea, where it’s not accessible, to Doha, where it will be in a bank, that U.S. Treasury has full oversight and transparency into, to be spent on non-sanctioned trade, like medicine and food. We’re bringing five Americans home. This is totally defensible deal, he said. The money is going into a bank in Doha, and one reason it has taken time, is that Treasury has worked out an arrangement so that the U.S. is going to know what the money is spent on, he said. So it may take a month or so to get the Americans home. https://open.substack.com/pub/diplo...mare?r=2cipm&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
The reality is that the Qatari rep in charge of allowing access to the funds will likely gain significant wealth when determining if the purchase is for humanitarian aid or not.
Past time to get these guys home. If you have leverage but are unwilling to use it you have no leverage. Looks like a well constructed deal. Kudos to the state dept.
It appears that there might be discussions about releasing Iranian reserves and potential undisclosed terms, including possibly supplying Russian loitering munitions. The situation seems complex and involves international relations and agreements. More details would be needed to fully understand the scope and implications of these actions.
That was sanctioned for a reason. If Iran has not paid off the lawsuit re: hostages then that should have been deducted first.
That's not how international law works. There are larger interests. You don't get other nations to join in sanctions regimes and make them effective unless you have certain rules. If anything, there a cogent arguments that we keep sanctions in place too long. Dan Drezner has written about it a lot
