WASHINGTON (CN) — The Biden administration has reportedly approved a deal to secure the freedom of five American citizens detained in Iran in exchange for thawing $6 billion in Iranian money and the release of five Iranian citizens from U.S. custody.
The Associated Press reported Monday that Congress has been notified of the decision, which was approved by Secretary of State Antony Blinken late last week.
The report came about two hours after State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters that the process to release the prisoners remained “ongoing” and he had no update on “timing for an ultimate resolution.”
Early reports of the deal said the U.S. would issue a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of sanctions. The money, composed of unpaid oil dues, would be moved to Qatari accounts only accessible to the Iranian government for purchases of humanitarian goods such as medicine and food. It is unclear how the U.S. would enforce the restrictions on uses for the funds.
Washington would also release five Iranian citizens held in the United States.
In exchange, Iran would free the detained Americans, who have been moved from prison to house arrest in preparation for a possible prisoner exchange.
The names of the U.S. citizens weren’t immediately available on Monday. Of U.S. citizens in Iranian custody, only three have been identified: Siamak Namazi, who has been held in Iran since 2015; Morad Tahbaz, who was arrested in January 2018; and Emad Shargi, who was initially arrested in April 2018. Shargi was cleared of charges in 2019, but in 2020 was charged and convicted of espionage without a trial.
Last month, Republican lawmakers urged the White House to forgo any deal that would boost the Iranian economy while the country poses a threat to U.S. troops and Washington’s Middle East allies.
“The deal itself is shameful enough. But that the Biden administration chose today of all days to notify Congress the president is handing $6 billion to the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world just adds insult to injury,” Senator Katie Boyd Britt of Alabama wrote in a post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, referring to the Monday’s anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Republicans were fiercely critical of a similar deal approved in 2015 by then-President Barack Obama.
“While I welcome home wrongfully detained Americans, unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian assets dangerously further incentivizes hostage taking and provides a windfall for regime aggression,” Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in an Aug. 10 post.
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst called the exchange a $6 billion “payout.”
“This will only greenlight Iran’s illicit actions and encourage further hostage ‘diplomacy,’” Ernst wrote in a post. “Biden’s failed strategy of appeasement must end.”
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