White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications stopped by the daily press briefing on Wednesday where he was peppered with questions about the Biden administration's latest move to trade five American prisoners in Iran for five Iranians and $6 billion. The $6 billion is Iranian cash that was frozen in an account by the U.S. in South Korea.
Kirby denied classifying the movement of cash as a ransom payment that will incentivize kidnapping of more Americans.
"I also want to be clear: This is not a payment of any kind. It’s not a ransom. These aren’t U.S.-taxpayer dollars. And we haven’t lifted a single one of our sanctions on Iran. Iran will be getting no sanctions relief," Kirby said.
"How is this not incentivizing bad actors...in the future to detain more Americans?!"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2023
KIRBY: "Bad actors...don't need any incentive...to detain Americans...We have to accept the reality that it could happen again in the future!" pic.twitter.com/n9FHeJED7c
JOHN KIRBY: "This is not a payment of any kind. It's not ransom!" pic.twitter.com/oeANmPkYm2
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2023
When asked whether the new money will be used by the terrorist regime to launch attacks, either against Americans, western allies or to oppress the Iranian people, Kirby essentially threw up is hands and admitted the answer was yes.
JOHN KIRBY: "Won't this just free up funds for [Iran] to continue to do bad behavior? They've been participating in bad behavior for a long, long time!" pic.twitter.com/y4FQFB0mg0
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2023
Kirby also justified giving the Iranian regime more than what the U.S. got in return.
.@JacquiHeinrich: "Didn't they also get five Iranians?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2023
JOHN KIRBY: "Yeah."@JacquiHeinrich: "Then why did we need to add $6 billion dollars on top of that?!"
JOHN KIRBY: "This is the deal that we were able to strike." pic.twitter.com/7hy36Mj0Eg