Royce: Iran's new ransom demand confirms worst fears

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said news that Iran is demanding at least $4 million for the safe return of a U.S. permanent resident confirms his fears that the Obama administration's huge cash payment to Tehran in January is encouraging Iran to take more hostages.

"Just as I feared, the Iranian regime now has more American hostages and wants more money," Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., told the Washington Examiner Wednesday.

"The Obama administration's $1.7 billion cash payment to Iran wasn't just bad policy — it put additional lives at risk. ... Iran should release all American hostages immediately and unconditionally," said Royce.

Royce also noted that President Obama threatened to veto his bill to bar additional "ransom payments." Obama argued at the time that the measure is aimed at solving a problem, the "so-called ransom payments, that does not exist."

Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen and permanent resident of the United States, has been imprisoned in Iran for more than a year and last month was sentenced to 10 years in Iranian prison on charges of spying, which he denies.

On Tuesday, Zakka said through his attorney that Iranian officials told him it would take $4 million from the U.S. to win his release, and that he would remain in prison until the payment his made.

Royce and other Republicans have argued for months that the Obama administration has given an incentive to Iran to take and host hostages in return for ransom payments by timing out a $400 million cash payment to Iran in January in order to ensure the release of four American hostages, along with a $1.3 billion cash payment just days later.

The administration has argued that that the payment was unrelated to the hostages' release and was paid to resolve a longstanding dispute over money Iran had paid to the U.S. to buy jets, a deal that never happened after the Shah of Iran was overthrown in 1979. But officials have admitted that the payment was delayed to gain leverage in the hostage negotiations, and Republicans have warned that decision would lead to more hostage situations.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., who formerly chaired the House Foreign Affairs panel, said Wednesday that the prisoners held in Iran are "pawns in a dangerous game as Iran continues to use the nuclear deal as leverage to extract more and more concessions from the U.S."

"The obvious consequence of paying ransom to terrorists is that you have just demonstrated that hostage taking can be financially beneficial," she told the Examiner. "The administration and all responsible nations must take a stand and take immediate action to secure the unconditional release of all hostages and put an end to Iran's repeated violations of human rights."

Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said the Obama administration's view of the $1.7 billion in cash payment matters far less than what the Iranians think about it.

"What was more important to ask is whether the Iranians viewed it that way [as a ransom payment]," he said. "And now, it appears clear that they do."

The Iranians want the money, Schanzer said, because the nuclear deal between Tehran, Washington and other world powers has not fully yielded the benefits Iran was expecting. Foreign investment in Iran has been slow to materialize in the wake of the nuclear agreement because global banks harbor lingering concerns about the risks associated with Iran's ongoing support for terrorism and other illicit financial activities, he said.

"Demands for ransom will hardly assuage their fears," Schanzer added.

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