Iran will net $6 BILLION dollars in exchange for giving up five American hostages. And while I do hope they will see freedom soon, I have a very serious problem with how the Biden Administration negotiated this deal.

Keep in mind that, since the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, Iranian assets to the tune of BILLIONS have been frozen. Yet, this is the same Iran that the Obama Administration decided to negotiate the Iran Deal with. The same deal that Iran made bank on, while we just handed over the nuclear weapon keys, and freed terrorists. Because YES, Iran has been overtly and quietly building up their nuclear capabilities while thumbing their nose at the Western World and still hasn’t signed the fabulous Obama Iran Deal. 

But now, there are five American hostages who will be freed…in stages. 

We have received confirmation that Iran has released from prison five Americans who were unjustly detained and has placed them on house arrest. While this is an encouraging step, these U.S. citizens – Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Shargi, and two Americans who at this time wish to remain private – should have never been detained in the first place. We will continue to monitor their condition as closely as possible. Of course, we will not rest until they are all back home in the United States.
 
Until that time, negotiations for their eventual release remain ongoing and are delicate. We will, therefore, have little in the way of details to provide about the state of their house arrest or about our efforts to secure their freedom.

Again, I couldn’t be more hopeful that these Americans will be freed…eventually. What I DON’T like is that, instead of just letting them come back to the United States, they get moved to house arrest?

How many more hoops of getting to freedom will they all have to jump through before finally getting on a plane to home soil? And, what is Iran plotting behind our backs on this?

The Democrats say the Republicans are just being bitchy about the terms of the deal. 

Republicans on key foreign policy panels are criticizing an unfolding plan that would release Americans imprisoned in Iran because it involves giving the Islamist regime access to billions of dollars — with one calling it a “ransom.”

Well, yes. It IS a ransom.  A helluva large ransom at that!

While I welcome home wrongfully detained Americans, unfreezing $6B in #Iranian assets dangerously further incentivizes hostage taking & provides a windfall for regime aggression. The Biden Admin must punish those who use Americans as political pawns and work to end this practice. https://t.co/n1cXH9ldzR

— Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member (@SenateForeign) August 10, 2023

Exactly. These hostages, at least the ones named, have dual Iran/American nationality. What is in place that would ensure Iran will let those hostages graduate from house arrest to freedom in the United States sometime over the next few months? I sincerely doubt there is nothing to stop them from tanking the deal…just because. 

“This is just the beginning of a process that I hope and expect will lead to their return home to the United States,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Thursday. “There’s more work to be done to actually bring them home. My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare.”

The prisoners are Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz, who had all been jailed on unsubstantiated charges of spying, as well as two others whose families withheld their names. One of the unnamed Americans is a scientist, and the other is a businessman, according to two people briefed on the arrangements of the release.

Well, that sounds all great and wonderful. Except Iran is the scorpion. 

Releasing $6 billion to the butchers in Tehran just so American hostages can go to a different type of prison is a terrible deal. Iran shouldn't profit from holding Americans hostage.

— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) August 10, 2023

Which all those involved in those negotiations were most likely many of the SAME people involved in the negotiations for the original Iran Deal that Congress has never signed off on and Iran has never adhered to. 

But again, as much as we’d ALL like American hostages to be freed, the fact that Iran is going to be handed $6 BILLION dollars in exchange sends a horrible message. 

You too can be held hostage and when the right President with zero spine and pudding brain rolls into town, then your freedom is worth $6 billion dollars. 

BREAKING: NYT confirms Biden has finished deal to pay $6-7 billion in ransom to Iran for five American hostages.

This is about to unleash a massive wave of further taking of American hostages – they are now worth $1.5 billion a head.https://t.co/8hrCRxvEeV

— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) August 10, 2023

Yes, that is a very real possibility. WHY? Because Pudding head Joe and his handlers gave Iran $6 billion dollars in leverage. Not to mention that the terrorist organizations have now sat up and taken notice. 

Biden is shamefully caving to Iran’s blackmail and extortion. Rewarding Iran for taking Americans hostage incentivizes more hostage-taking.

The $6 billion ransom payment will help Iran build nuclear weapons, support terrorism, oppress the Iranian people, and assist Russia.…

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 10, 2023

That fabulous payout to Iran is an exceptional benefit to that regime’s work on building nuclear weapons. It’s a regime that cracks down on women’s rights, while also targeting Israel and the U.S. 

Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, said the United States and Iran had reached a deal for a prisoner exchange and the release of Iran’s billions of dollars of assets. He said Iran had received the “commitments necessary” from the United States that it would honor the deal. Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, reported that five Iranians would be released from American prisons in exchange for the five Americans released by Iran.

Iranian media presented the deal as a victory for the conservative administration of President Ebrahim Raisi and called it “honorable diplomacy.”

So, who is the winner here? Not the United States. 

Feature Photo Credit: Weapons and Iran money via iStock, cropped and modified