US denies ransom deal

The Obama administration said on Wednesday that $400 million in cash paid to Iran soon after the release of five Americans detained by Tehran was not ransom as some Republicans have charged.

The five, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, were released on Jan 16 in exchange for seven Iranians held in the United States for sanctions violations. The prisoner deal coincided with the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.

At the time, the United States said it had settled a longstanding Iranian claim at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal in The Hague, releasing $400 million in funds frozen since 1981, plus $1.3 billion in interest that was owed to Iran.

The funds were part of a trust fund Iran used before its 1979 Islamic Revolution to buy US military equipment that was tied up for decades in litigation at the tribunal.

Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, on Wednesday sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to appear at a future committee hearing to discuss the payment.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest rejected suggestions the money transfer to Iran was ransom or a secret. Earnest said Republicans, who have long opposed the Iran nuclear deal, are seizing on how the money was paid to Iran as a way to undermine the deal. "They're struggling to justify their opposition to our engagement with Iran," he told a briefing.