The United States and Iran reached an agreement that will culminate with the release of five Americans detained in Iran and an undetermined number of Iranians in prison in the United States.
The deal requires billions in frozen Iranian assets to be transferred from banks in South Korea to Qatar.
Former Vice President Mike Pence criticized the agreement on Saturday.
He’s stated that it’s a travesty that President Joe Biden gave more than $5 billion to the Mullahs in Tehran.
Pence said American captives are never released in exchange for money because we know that the Mullahs in Tehran will use those billions of dollars to continue to sow violence across the region, to continue to send drones to Russia so that innocent civilians in Ukraine can continue to be bombed; and to continue to threaten our most cherished ally, Israel, regardless of what the White House says.
Pence said that America can now be regarded as an ATM – “the cash window is open.”
He said it was “unconscionable.” Pence said the United States does not pay the ransom, and if he is elected president, the United States would respond forcefully to any nation that kidnaps an American citizen.
On Thursday, Iran announced that four of the five Americans had been transferred from jail to house detention, marking the completion of a complicated settlement that had been in the works for months of informal discussions between U.S. and Iranian authorities.
The fifth American had been under home arrest for some time.
The exact circumstances surrounding the money transfer, its completion time, and the eventual release of the American and Iranian captives are unknown at this time.
However, officials from both the United States and Iran have expressed optimism that the deal would be finalized by the end of September.
