Fox News strategic analyst Ralph Peters said Wednesday that the additional $1.3 billion paid by the Obama administration in cash to Iran was a "bribe" to rescue the nuclear deal.
The Obama administration acknowledged on Tuesday that the $1.7 billion paid to Iran to settle a decades-old arms deal dispute was made entirely in cash, with the additional $1.3 billion paid in two installments after an initial $400 million payment. The administration came under fire when the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. paid Iran $400 million in cash on Jan. 17, the day it got back American hostages from Tehran.
"You’ve got to differentiate between the first $400 million, which was ransom ... and the remainder, which, to me was a bribe, a massive bribe to prevent the Iranians from embarrassing our president over the nuke deal," Peters, a retired lieutenant colonel, said.
Although the White House pushed back against allegations that the money was essentially a ransom, State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Aug. 18 that the $400 million cash payment was contingent upon the release of the prisoners.
Peters said Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were showing "signs of desperation" to preserve the nuclear deal, which the White House has trumpeted as a landmark foreign policy achievement. Peters pointed to Iran’s continued support of terrorism and harassment of U.S. ships as evidence the nation has not changed for the better, despite the nuclear accord.
"It did not stop Iran’s nuclear program. It prevented us, it paralyzed us, from responding to Iranian provocations," Peters said.
Peters laughed when Fox News host Martha MacCallum repeated back the Obama administration line that the $1.7 billion payment was a savvy way to save the American taxpayers money.
"That’s what Iran demanded. It was a quid pro quo," he said. "President Obama was not going to get his nuke deal unless we pay that money. One wonders what else is going to come out from all of this, as well."