Iran National Security Chief Denies Link Between US $400Mln Pay, Nuclear Talks

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani denied on Monday a link between the secret multimillion US payment to Iran and Tehran’s nuclear program, in a comment to an Iranian news agency.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The nation’s Communications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi told RIA Novosti earlier today that Washington had airlifted $400 million in cash to Iran seven months ago as part of the deal on Iran’s nuclear program. Simultaneously, sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear research were scrapped on January 16.

Shamkhani told Tasnim news agency that the US payment was part of a settlement on a decades-old arms deal between the countries that was suspended due the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran received $400 million in frozen assets and expects $1.3 more in accumulated interest.

Iran’s top national security official said the announcement that Iran had fulfilled its commitment under the nuclear pact as millions in cash were reportedly flown by an unmarked cargo plane to Tehran was a mere coincidence.

This confirmed last Wednesday’s statement by White House spokesman Josh Earnest, who said the payment had aimed to reimburse funds the Iranian government paid in 1979 for military equipment that had never been provided.