It only took Team Biden six days to do what they should have done on day one or two. The internal polling must have been HORRIFIC.

The news has come from Biden administration to House Democrats, and now being reported in the Washington Post, that the United States and Qatar have decided to freeze the $6 billion that Iran had “thawed out” from previously frozen accounts after a hostage exchange with the United States.

U.S. officials and the Qatari government have agreed to stop Iran from accessing a $6 billion account for humanitarian assistance in light of Hamas’s attack on Israel, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told House Democrats on Thursday, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private remarks.

The decision not to permit access to the money comes just a few weeks after the U.S. and Iranian governments announced a deal to set up the humanitarian assistance as part of a prisoner swap aimed at easing hostilities in the region. U.S. officials had to approve each transaction under the agreement. The fund is financed by Iranian oil sales.

But President Biden has faced mounting bipartisan pressure on Capitol Hill to prevent the funds from being used by Iran, amid scrutiny of Tehran’s links to Hamas. U.S. officials say Hamas has received weapons and training from Iran, but there has been no evidence of Iran’s direct role in the slaughter, The Washington Post previously reported.

Adeyemo told House Democrats that the money “isn’t going anywhere anytime soon,” according to three House Democratic aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations. That comment was first reported by Punchbowl.

Senators of both parties, including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), have called on the Biden administration to renege on the agreement.

Asked about the push to freeze the aid, Iran’s mission to the United Nations responded in a statement: “The senators in question and the U.S. government are all acutely aware that they can NOT renege on the agreement. The money rightfully belongs to the people of Iran, earmarked for the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to facilitate the acquisition of all essential and non-sanctioned requisites for the Iranians.”

This $6 billion transfer to Qatari banks for Iran to access ONLY FOR “food and medicine” was a huge swindle and joke to begin with. This was always about Iran unlocking the money by using American hostages to get it. When the Wall Street Journal, along with the Washington Post, confirmed that Iran was behind the logistics, planning, and supplied the weapons for the invasion and massacre in Israel this last weekend, the Biden administration had egg all over its face, especially since they knew that Iran had announced to the entire world that they were going to spend the $6 billion however they damn well pleased. Let’s say it once again for Antony Blinken – MONEY IS FUNGIBLE.

But as administration officials insisted that the money hadn’t been touched yet, the bipartisan chorus to freeze it again was growing obviously louder. So the Biden administration was backed into a corner, and in order to save face (and approval numbers), they had to talk with Qatar. And now they are trying to do damage control.

None of the funds have “been spent or accessed in any way by Iran,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference Thursday in Tel Aviv.

Blinken did not confirm that “a quiet understanding” had been reached but made clear the US is able to freeze the funds.

“We have strict oversight of the funds, and we retain the right to freeze them,” Blinken said.

John Kirby, a National Security Council spokesman, declined to elaborate on any new agreement on the funds.

“It’s still sitting in the Qatari bank, all of it. Every dime of it,” he told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “None of that money has been spent and I have no updates to provide.”

Iran was only going to be permitted to use the money for specific humanitarian trade transactions, and the approval of those transactions would be heavily scrutinized by the US government. The process for Iran to be able to spend the funds was expected to take months, if not years.

Despite the Biden administration’s dodging over a lack of a “smoking gun,” this re-freezing of the funds must mean they now know something they would rather not tell us.

This only happens if they’ve gotten intelligence that Iran was directly involved. https://t.co/7PDy10F9mC

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) October 12, 2023

It’s either that, or the pressure from both sides of the aisle, plus the approval numbers, had gotten to be too much for them to take. With Democrat support from the senators who had already announced that they wanted the money frozen again, the Biden administration knew that legislation to block the funds would pass. They are hoping that this move, this “quiet understanding” with Qatar, will ease the pressure on them.

This is the correct move to make, but it only happened because the Biden administration felt the heat of public opinion and bipartisan scorn. Hopefully that same public pressure will keep the Iran fangirls of the Biden administration from actively trying to bring back the Iran Deal from the dead.

Somewhere, Ben Rhodes is crying quietly into his pillow.

Featured image: Weapons and Iran money via iStock, cropped and modified