Transcripts For CSPAN Washington 20240703 : vimarsana.com

CSPAN Washington July 3, 2024

Morning. The agreement between the u. S. And iran also held the United States on various arges and freeze up 6 billion in irian funds held in south korea. It has generated praise and condemnation and is fulfilled on the day that President Biden is said to address the United Nations general assembly. It is tuesday, september 19, 2023. Welcome to washington journal. This first half hour we will talk to you about the release of the american hostages in iran. To join the conversation this morning, called 202 7488000 if you support the deal arranged between the United States and iran. If you oppose the deal, it is 202 7488001. We welcome comments via text, 202 7488003. Tell us your name and where you are texting from. We are also on facebook, we will look for your post there and our next and instagram. You can post at cspan wj and we will post those as well. Will get deeper in the next halfhour, a quick conversation on this topic, getting deeper into what the deal between the u. S. And iran is all about. We may also be seeing some of the hostages returning, the prisoners, american held against iran, they are returning at fort bell war a fort outside of the capital. Also though september 30 deadline looming next week. We will hear from Siobhan Hughes of the wall street journal. But first on the release of those americans, five americans detained in iran walk free, released in a deal for frozen iranian assets. Five americans detained for years in iran walked off a plane and into freedom monday, most arm in arm as part of a politically risky deal that saw President Biden agree to the release of nearly 6 billion in frozen iranian assets owed by south korea. Its the successful negotiations for the freedom of these americans, ap rights, rot biden profuse thanks from the families but heat from republican president ial rivals and other opponents with a monetary arrangement with one of americas top adversaries. That is from the Associated Press. One of the headlines on the story in the hill this morning, biden, americans released from iran into quote agony, uncertainty and suffering. President released a statement yesterday reading in part, today five innocent americans who were imprisoned in iran are finally coming home. Includo citizens who wish to remain private, they will all eunited with their loved after enduring years of agony, uncertainty and suffering, im grateful to our partners at home and abroad where their tireless efforts to achieve this outcome include the governors of iran, south korea. As we lce home our citizs, i remind all americans the serious risks of traveling to iran. American passport holders should not travel there. Part of the statement from President Biden. They were released in doha qatar. Antony blinken was there to meet them and he talked about that meeting yesterday and a half. In doha. We spoke to them yesterday in joe hawk. It was for them, for me, an emotional conversation. It is easy in the work we do every day sometimes to get lost in the abstractions of Foreign Policy and relations with other countries. Forgetting that Human Element at the heart of everything we do. But today, the freedom of these americans for so long unjustly imprisoned and detained in iran means some basic things. It means that husbands and wives , fathers and children, grandparents can hug each other again, see each other again. Can be with each other again. Its host secretary of state Antony Blinken yesterday in doha. The Prisoners Released by iran do this morning. Youre asking if you support the deal between the u. S. And iran. Visit 202 7488000 if you support, 202 7488000 if 202 7488001 if you oppose the deal. From the front page, iran freeze five americans in Prisoner Exchange. I will show you inside what they delve into in the story about the release and what was in the deal. From usa today, what did the u. S. And iran agree to . The u. S. Has been freezing irans assets and piling on economic sanctions ever since President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between iran and world powers in 2018. Deal was aimed at curbing International Allegations that iran denies, that is seeking to clear weapons. Under the previous agreement, the u. S. Has given a green light to south korea to effectively pay iran through the qatar Banking Systems before the trumpet magician imposed sanctions on these types of transactions in 2019. The white house said these funds will be held in restrictive accounts in tar double only qatar that will only allow them to purchase goods such as food, medicine, medical devices and goods. Our first caller in elizabeth city. Good morning. Caller i oppose this deal because what message are we sending . What message are we sending out there to other countries that may target americans . Dont get me wrong, i am all for bringing them home. I am all for reuniting families. No question about that. Its freedom. Im all for that. But does anybody seriously think that iran when they get this money are going to use it for humanitarian purposes . Who is fooling who . Host this is the first video we are seeing of americans coming home from iran on american soil, greeted by loved ones. Continue with your thoughts. Caller luck i said, i am all for them coming home. No question about that. There was no question in anyones mind about bringing home people. But the deal is sending the wrong message with other entities. Others may disagree but thats where i stand. Host linda from mississippi, good morning. Caller good morning, thanks for taking my call. I agree. Can you hear me . Host youre doing fine. We can. Caller those people that were captured have been over there for over eight years in the money years. The money the United States leads to them was their money. It was not given to them all at once. The United States will keep hands on it and give it to them in small portions. Those that criticize the deal do not understand Foreign Policy. Iran was not going to turn those prisoners free. It is not going to happen. Russia, china, you have got to negotiate with them. And they are not going to do it out of the goodness of their hearts. I agree. It would be a different thing. I agree. The United States did great. Thank you. Host as we mentioned, the video we are seeing, we are just seeing it as well, the first video of the iranian the americans formerly held in iran arriving. I think that is just outside the Nations Capital where they have returned. My producer will correct me if that is not the case. Arthur opposes the deal, calling from florida. Good morning. Arthur caller im very glad the hostages are coming home. But why did we freeze iranian assets to begin with . Second, are we going to reward bad behavior anytime some country decides they want they dont care about their own people, they will take some hostages and we will get our people back . Asserted issue is, when we know a nation like iran has hostages, maybe we need to stay out of countries like that. I thank you for your time. Host we will hear next our lines this first halfhour talking about the release of the americans held in iran, five americans held for various reasons by iran. The lines are if you support the release deal between the u. S. And iran, 202 7488000. If you oppose, 202 7488001. Joseph calling from syracuse, new york. Caller hit their always refused to release the jews to the United States, i do not think they should bribe iran to release hostages. Host margaret in upstate new york, on the support line. Go ahead. Caller my president brought them home. I happen to like it has a president. Those all have to say. Host margaret in upstate new york. Again, 202 7488000 is the line to call if you support the ideal the deal and iran. If you oppose, we will get back to more of your phone calls and comments. 202 7488001 we are joined by Siobhan Hughes, congressional reporter for the wall street journal. Welcome to washington journal this morning. Checking on where we stand with a september 30 deadline looming for congress and the house. How many working days do they have to get this done . Guest there are roughly 1000 calendar days left to get this done and those are translating into working days because Kevin Mccarthy has indicated he could pull people in town through the weekend until all of this gets hammered out. Kind of a marathon session we are in for. Host the latest iteration of the shortterm spending measures deal announced that the deal on the republican side between the House Freedom caucus and the mainstreet caucus, that would always only run through the end of october. Even passing that deal we would be back and doing this in october. Guest we will be back doing this in october. We would avoid a Government Shutdown, hundreds of thousands of furloughs, a temporary cessation of certain government services. Better than a shutdown. Host do Speaker Mccarthy think he has the support on the republican side to pass this . Guest he does not. What we seem to be headed for is calculated strategy of putting these measures on the floor, potentially watching them fail and letting it be up to the constituents to put pressure on these members and maybe putting mccarthy in the position of isolating them and blaming them for any consequences. Host what would be the number so far, your account of the public inside of the house, that are opposing the speaker on this issue . Guest im looking at more than one dozen House Republicans if everybody shows up to vote, you can lose no more than four members of his party and this will be on the republican basis. St notably, this deal wod cut 8. 1 of spending, but it would be nondefense spending and except for defense and emergency aid. Do republicans hope that 8. 1 figure will carry through the end of the year and into the new fiscal year . Guest there are a number of republicans who would like that level of cuts to carry into the new fiscal year. This group wanted to go back to fiscal 2022 spending levels. But even there it gets a little complicated. One of the ways that the larger package got to those by pulling money from programs that had already been funded and trying to boost the budget that way. The interior, someone like mike stenson what to minimize that. Host what is the democrat strategy in the house . Guest i talked to Hakeem Jeffries last week and my question was, if push comes to shove and Kevin Mccarthy comes to you and asks for this, could you support that . I expected him to jump in and say yes. But he says it depends what you mean by a clean cr. He says there would have to be elements of the supplemental that biden called for. He is not safe with that meant. But it is clearly a negotiation. Host republicans are hoping from constituents, the same they would be from the democrat constituents. Guest when Kevin Mccarthy proceeded from an impeachment inquiry, that appears to have poisoned the well. Theres a question of how far it can go in working with a lot of democrats who feel this is unworkable. It is hard to rip break bed break bread with republicans now. Host we understand it is a changeable subject. The appreciate your update, we look forward to your reporting. Thanks for being with us this morning. Our conversation this first halfhour is more broadly about the deal between the u. S. And iran, freeing five americans held for years in the country. And iranians held by the u. S. On some charges. Some 6 billion funds some 6 billion in funds being held by south korea. 202 7488000 is aligned to call if you support the deal. If you oppose, 202 7488001. We are seeing videos of americans being greeted by loved ones arriving home this morning. Margaret on the support line. Caller god bless american. The mentor home, the money we freed up was to pay our oil money and two of the five iranians decided to stay here so what does that tell you . I think we did great. Host margaret in utah, we appreciate you. This is from the reporting of out to zero, al jazeera. Net. Prisoner swap important first step but tensions remain. Writing this morning, the prisoner swap between the United States and iran is a step toward deescalating tensions between the two countries, experts say. But it does not point to an eminent fall in frosty relations. Alex bottega, director of the iran program at the middle east Institute Think Tank in washington, called the Prisoner Exchange a transactional deal. The agreement also included the release of five iranian prisoners in the u. S. And the unfreezing of 6 billion in iranian funds blocked in south korea due to american sanctions. Everybody is basically reconciling themselves with the facts the fact the best they can do for now is take small steps toward preventing a crisis, they told al jazeera. There is no big vision being articulated that can tell us something in terms of a breakthrough in the pipeline. There is no sign of that. Five american citizens previously detained in iran were flown out of the country on monday as part of an agreement which was facilitated by qatar and other countries. Read that at al jazeera. Net. 202 7488000 is the line to call if you support the deal. 202 7488001 if you oppose. Heres Mitch Mcconnell on the floor, talking about the money involved in this deal. It will wrap up production of the weaponized wrongs used against arabs and civilians to supply violence in ukraine. These militias continue to threaten servicemembers in iraq and syria. Iran continuing to dust resources in lebanon, others that attack israel. And the regime has even plotted to kill u. S. Officials. Here on american soil. Its last week, they seized two more junker ships in the arabian growth coldarabian gulf in an effort to threaten freedom of navigation and the entire economy. The growing threat has led the u. S. Military to deploy 3000 additional marines to the red sea and prepared to put u. S. Personnel they are to deter iranian aggression. Around opposed the aggression threat to its neighbors in the United States. Biden ministrations squandered leverage and has left americans less secure. The question is when the president will decide to change course. So far, his administration is obsessed with reviving a flawed nuclear deal and it suggests otherwise. Host from the Washington Post, the lead editorial this morning, five americans today, how many tomorrow . The return of hostages from iran is cause for celebration, the cost is great. The Washington Post say this, the harsh truth is that rewarding hostagetaking breeds more of the same. Rogue states claim the jail door clang the jail door shut and wait for the payoffs and almost never suffer consequent as for stealing people on the street. The best deterrent would be for the United States and other nations to refuse to negotiate for the release of such hostages. But that has proved unattractive for u. S. Officials who have struck unbalanced deals to free innocent americans from foreign cells. Such decisions can only inspire a mix of understanding and regret. Optimists may regard the deal as a prelude to the thought and dust in the hostility between the United States and iran, yet should mind americans of why they should treat iran with extreme caution. Iran is now allied with russia in the exported manufacture of deadly drones exploding on civilian targets in ukraine, killing innocent people as they flee. At home, the theocracy has confronted a yearlong protest movement led by women and students with relentless coercion and violence. 202 7488000 if you support the iran deal, 202 7488001 if you oppose. In west virginia, arbor barbara. Good morning. Caller yes. I would like to say its i think we need to get our people back, but it a trade for trade, yes. I dont believe they should release any money because they are such an evil country and they dont give the people food and stuff, no matter how much money they send over there. They want to kill everybody and be the world leader. That is how i feel. Host , david in albany, georgia who also opposes the deal. David. Caller i dont really oppose, im just curious, i am up to speed. How long were they detained and what was the reason for them being there to begin with . Thank you for lead and become it. Host all five were detained on various different charges. I will try to look at those if we get a chance. Secretary of state Antony Blinken yesterday and doha, qatar. He was the First American to greatly former hostages. As you know, this involved access to iran by its own money, money that had accumulated in a green bank as a result of recent oil sales which were lawful on the time those sales were made. And from day one, our sanctions have always exempt the use of resources for humanitarian purposes. Because our aim is not to harm the iranian people. Our profound problem is with the iranian regime. From day one, these iranian moneys have always been available for iran to use for humanitarian purposes. But for humanitarian reasons, they were not able to access those funds from where they were. So they were moved to another bank, where we have absolute oversight of how they are used and they can only get used for the humanitarian purposes. We have absolute confidence in the process and the system that has been set up. The previous ministration Prior Administration prior to ours set up a similar machination that was never used but for these purposes. Host back to the calls and comments. Beatrice is next, in minneapolis. Welcome. Its caller i am in oregon, but only the people

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