Ed Royce: “I raise this issue because, on three occasions now, we have had the transfer of pallets of cash to the Government of…”

“I raise this issue because, on three occasions now, we have had the transfer of pallets of cash to the Government of Iran, and this legislation would make certain that that does not happen again. The reason we do not want to pay cash to the Government of Iran has to do with all of the efforts that the international community has put into trying to track the conduct of that regime, which is a primary money laundering concern for the international financial community, and for the fact that particular government in Iran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been the primary source of cash support for Hamas in the past and also today for Hezbollah. We could add to that the work of the IRGC in trying to get parts for their ballistic missile program as their agents are out and about Europe trying to buy this equipment. It is not in the interest of the United States to have the regime have cold, hard cash. So this legislation would put an end to that. As the Members of the House will recall, the President announced in January that the United States would pay Iran $1.7 billion to settle a dispute involving a 1979 arms deal. This payment came out of the blue.…”