Just recently in the news, it was discovered the former President while negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, a senior cleric and member of parliament has come forward exposing former President Barack Obama and his administration granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians, including family members of government officials. Now in direct violation of the President’s travel ban which has recently been upheld by the United States Supreme Court.
It’s not difficult to see that this was a completely irresponsible decision to make against the United States national security. This was also arranged during Iran sanctions in place and there was no vetting or investigating the 2,500 Iranians backgrounds. Did some of these people have a criminal background and specifically relating to terrorism crimes?
During this time, the Obama and his administration granted a license letting Iran access the United States financial system despite officials’ pledge that they would prohibit it, according to a draft report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
On February 24, 2016, the Treasury Department issued a specific license to Bank Muscat to authorize the conversion of Iran’s rials to euros through any United States depository institution. All this occurred even after the specific license was issued. U.S. government officials maintained in congressional testimony that Iran would not be granted access to the U.S. financial system.
Senator Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio and subcommittee chairman said, “I think they did so because they were desperate to get a deal.” When the nations involved in the Iran nuclear agreement implemented the deal, Iran had $5.7 billion in assets at Bank Muscat in Muscat, Oman, maintained as Oman rials, according to the subcommittee. Iran wanted access to that money, and using the U.S. financial system to convert it was the most efficient means, even though U.S. sanctions prohibited this from happening.
There were government officials (and who are they?) who tried to convince two U.S. banks to execute the conversion. They both declined, citing the complexity and the unwanted appearance involved in processing an Iranian transaction.