News

Miami, FL – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued the following statement today regarding a new report detailing how the Obama Administration “agreed to back the lifting of United Nations sanctions on two Iranian state banks blacklisted for financing Iran’s ballistic-missile program on the same day in January that Tehran released four American citizens from prison[.]” Under President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, the sanctions were not to be lifted until 2023.
 
“President Obama promised the United States would maintain and enforce sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile activities,” said Rubio. “Today we learned he secretly agreed – eight years early – to lift sanctions on an Iranian bank the U.S. Treasury Department described as ‘the financial linchpin of Iran’s missile procurement network.’
 
“We also learned the Obama Administration official who signed documents codifying this and other concessions to Tehran was the same official who signed the document obtaining the release of American hostages.
 
“If the same two people negotiating the release of hostages and simultaneously agreeing to a $1.7 billion cash payment and other concessions is not ransom, then I don’t know what is.
 
“Who was the Iranian official who signed these documents? What arm of the Iranian government does he work for? The answers may shed some light on how Iran used those pallets of cash from American taxpayers.
 
“I am still waiting for President Obama to answer these questions and others about his lies, and for him to explain why he continues to put his political legacy above the safety and security of the American people.”