During a portion of an interview with NBC News set to air on Thursday’s broadcast of “NBC Nightly News,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken reacted to reports that the U.S. and Qatar reached a deal to stop the distribution of the $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen by a prisoner swap deal the Biden administration brokered by stating that “there has been no distribution of the account. There wasn’t a question of stopping it. There hasn’t been any. And we retain the right to formally freeze it.”
Host Lester Holt asked, “There’s been great controversy over the $6 billion of Iranian money that was unfrozen recently. The U.S. has apparently now moved to stop the distribution of that money by Qatar, which was a response. But was that an acknowledgment that Iran might have been involved in this attack?”
Blinken answered, “Well, two things here: First, when it comes to Iran and its possible involvement, Iran’s had a long relationship with Hamas. Hamas wouldn’t be Hamas without the support, over many, many years from Iran. And so, we know that, we see that. When it comes to this specific attack, in this moment, we don’t have direct evidence that Iran was involved in the attack, either in planning it or carrying it out. But, that could change, and, as I said, there’s a much longer complicity between Iran and Hamas that the world knows, and it’s one of the reasons that, since this administration’s been in office, we’ve sanctioned Iran, individuals, companies, more than 400 times, including for support to Hamas.”
He continued that the money is “under the supervision our Treasury Department,” and “only for humanitarian purposes. And not a dollar of that money has been spent to date. And we retain the right to freeze that account.”
Holt then asked, “And is that what you have technically done now by stopping distribution from that account?”
Blinken responded, “As I said, there has been no distribution of the account. There wasn’t a question of stopping it. There hasn’t been any. And we retain the right to formally freeze it.”
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