Israel war: White House stands by $6 billion prisoner swap payment to Iran

The White House stands by its recent decision to send $6 billion to Iran in exchange for the safe release of U.S. citizens, even after the Hamas terror attacks in Israel over the weekend.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan joined White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at Tuesday’s press briefing and faced a number of questions on the topic.

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“The United States does not regret bringing home American citizens who have been unjustly detained abroad. As I said before, the president has no higher priority than to get Americans home,” Sullivan told the Washington Examiner when asked if the president regretted the payment. “Right now, we have Americans who are being held hostage by Hamas and Gaza. That is a high priority. Bringing those Americans home from Iran was a high priority from Afghanistan, from Venezuela, from other places as well, and we stand by bringing those people home because that is the duty of the commander in chief — to get innocent Americans out of captivity in places that they are being unjustly detained.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill have sought to link the prisoner swap to the weekend’s terror attacks. Sullivan acknowledged Tuesday that Iran has long funded Hamas and has communicated with militant leaders, but said that the U.S. does not currently believe the Iranian government authorized or helped plan the attacks in Israel.

Earlier in the briefing, Sullivan declined to say if the U.S. would attempt to refreeze the $6 billion sent to Iran and claimed that none of the money had yet been spent by the Iranian government.

“We have not yet had a dollar of that 6 billion spent, and I will leave it at that,” Sullivan said when asked. “Let me just reiterate what I said because it’s unequivocal. Not a dollar of that money has been spent, and I will leave it at that.”

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You can watch Tuesday’s briefing in full below.