Obama on Secret Iran Cash Payment: ‘We Do Not Pay Ransom’

Monica Sanchez | August 4, 2016
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(Image via Screenshot)

During a Thursday press conference at the Pentagon, President Barack Obama addressed suggestions that his administration’s secret cash payment to Iran of $400 million in January was a ransom for the release of four American hostages.  

He echoed comments from his White House press secretary on Tuesday that the payment was not a ransom and that the timing was simply coincidental.

“We do not pay ransom for hostages,” he said. “We’ve got a number of Americans being held all around the world, and I meet with their families, and it is heartbreaking… But those families know that we have a policy that we don’t pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow start now in this high profile way and announce it to the world … defies logic.”

“We do not pay ransom," Obama repeated. "We didn’t here and we won’t in the future, precisely because if we did, then we would start encouraging Americans to be targeted.”

Check out a clip from his remarks below.

 

 

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