White House says funds to help release US citizens in Iran will be held in supervised account
White House national security spokesman John Kirby says Iranian funds to help secure the release of five US citizens will be held in a supervised account in Qatar. Tehran will have to submit requests in order to draw funds to be used strictly for humanitarian purposes. "The Iranian people will be the beneficiaries of these funds, not the regime," he says, adding that the goal was to repatriate Americans unjustifiably detained in Iran.
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00:00 The United States is pursuing an arrangement in which Iranian funds held in South Korea
00:06 are moved to restricted accounts in Qatar, where they would be available for humanitarian
00:11 transactions only.
00:12 Things like food, medicine, medical supplies, medical equipment, agricultural products.
00:19 These funds will now be subject to more legal restrictions than they were when they were
00:24 in Korea.
00:25 They will be monitored by rigorous due diligence standards required by the U.S. Treasury Department.
00:31 The Iranian people will be the beneficiaries of these funds, not the regime.
00:35 The regime doesn't get to touch the money, Peter.
00:38 It doesn't go to them.
00:39 They don't get to decide ultimate destination, and they have no direct access to it.
00:46 And getting Americans home requires decisions, sometimes really tough decisions.
00:52 It requires compromise.
00:53 It requires negotiations.
00:55 It requires negotiations with people you really would rather not be sitting across the table
00:59 from.
01:00 But you've got to do it, because Americans overseas in trouble, wrongfully detained,
01:04 need to know, and their families need to know, that this president and this administration
01:07 will do what it takes to bring them home.
01:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]