{"id":1441846,"date":"2023-12-02T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T03:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1441846"},"modified":"2023-12-02T22:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-03T03:30:00","slug":"house-passes-bill-to-permanently-freeze-6bn-in-iranian-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/house-passes-bill-to-permanently-freeze-6bn-in-iranian-funds\/1441846\/","title":{"rendered":"House Passes Bill To\u00a0‘Permanently Freeze’ $6BN In Iranian Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

House Passes Bill To\u00a0‘Permanently Freeze’ $6BN In Iranian Funds<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Via The Cradle,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

On Thursday the US House of Representatives in a 307-119 vote\u00a0passed a bill<\/a>\u00a0that would force the White House to permanently freeze $6 billion in Iranian funds released back in September<\/strong> as part of a successful prisoner exchange deal.<\/p>\n

“Giving Iran access to these funds for any purpose frees up money for its malign activities, including its support to proxies, like we saw on 7 October, like Hamas,” Representative Michael McCaul \u2013 who introduced the bill \u2013 told reporters.<\/p>\n

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) speaks in support of the “No Funding For Iranian Terror Act”. YouTube\/House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) speaks in support of the “No Funding For Iranian Terror Act” on the House floor on Nov. 30, 2023. Credit: YouTube\/House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans.<\/p>\n

The US Senate has introduced similar legislation to freeze the Iranian funds but has yet to pass it out of committee.<\/p>\n

Despite the accusations from western officials, Iranian authorities maintain they had no previous knowledge of the plans by Hamas to launch Operation\u00a0Al-Aqsa Flood<\/a>\u00a0and have repeatedly\u00a0stressed<\/a>\u00a0Tehran has no interest in seeing the hostilities expand into a regional war<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In September, Tehran and Washington\u00a0completed<\/a>\u00a0a landmark prisoner exchange deal <\/strong>brokered by Qatar that also saw the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds seized by South Korea due to US sanctions.<\/p>\n

The billions were\u00a0transferred<\/a>\u00a0by Seoul to the Qatari accounts of several Iranian banks using the SWIFT system<\/strong>, thanks to a sanctions waiver provided by Washington.<\/p>\n

Despite\u00a0US officials<\/a>\u00a0claiming in the wake of the deal that they would police the use of the funds, Iranian authorities stressed these would be used to acquire “whatever the Iranian people need.”<\/p>\n

At the time, Washington-based\u00a0think tanks<\/a>\u00a0considered the deal a softball maneuver <\/strong>by the White House to publicly kickstart the easing of tensions with Tehran. This move was seen as a way to navigate around the resistance of congressional representatives and\u00a0pressure from Israeli hawks<\/a>\u00a0against reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Neocon wing of the Republicans have long sought to block the Biden move to free up the $6BN, but Thursday’s vote had bipartisan support…<\/em><\/p>\n

“We gave $6 billion in ransom to the Iranian regime to get 5 Americans home and there are now more than 5 Americans held by the Iranians today.”@mikepompeo<\/a> warns that the Biden administration’s appeasement of Iran emboldens Hamas. pic.twitter.com\/lN90JAacc8<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Hudson Institute (@HudsonInstitute) November 30, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, days after the start of the Gaza-Israel war on 7 October, the White House\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0Iran “would not be getting the money for the time being.” At the time, State Secretary Anthony Blinken said Tehran had not “touched the money yet.”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 12\/02\/2023 – 17:30<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/house-passes-bill-permanently-freeze-6bn-iranian-funds<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Passes Bill To\u00a0‘Permanently Freeze’ $6BN In Iranian Funds Via The Cradle, On Thursday the US House of Representatives in a 307-119 vote\u00a0passed a bill\u00a0that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1441846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-635A","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1441846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1441846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1441846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1441846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}