Washington Free Beacon senior writer Adam Kredo said Monday it is possible that money sent to Iran from the United States could be helping fund the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
One America News anchor Liz Wheeler discussed on her show Tipping Point the Obama administration’s $1.7 billion cash payment to Iran earlier this year after the nuclear deal was implemented. Wheeler asked if it was possible that some of the money was helping fund the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who may have fired missiles on the U.S. Navy’s destroyer USS Mason this past weekend, according to unconfirmed reports.
"Look, it’s entirely possible. Iran has said themselves they’ve actually been more forthright about the terms of their deal than our own government, and they have been very forward about the fact that they’ve put most of this money towards their military budget," Kredo said. "That mainly means the IRGC, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps. They control the military within the country and they also fund activities outside of the country."
Wheeler then asked Kredo how the U.S. can prove whether the cash payments previously airlifted to Iran were directly linked to the missile attacks off the Yemeni coast.
"It’s very difficult to establish that this exact money might have gone to that, but I think it’s fair to say that the connection is clear since the nuclear deal was signed and implemented," Kredo said. "Iran not just only got this $1.7 billion in cash. That’s $400 million that was technically theirs and another $1.3 billion on top that came from a taxpayer fund."
Kredo said he believed a large portion of the cash payments was being used to fund the Iranian military, noting that they were holding air defense drills this week.
Wheeler said that there has been increased military in activity in Iran since Tehran received the cash payments from Washington.
"Precisely. Iran has been doing this actually for quite some time, but it seems to be getting more attention now," Kredo said. "That is an uptick in ballistic missile operations. That’s research and development. That also includes things like its space program, which is a cover we all know for an intercontinental ballistic missile system that’s capable of carrying a nuclear warhead effectively anywhere across the world, whether it be Israel or the United States."