Claim:
A social media post by Conservative political strategist Joey Mannarino claimed that President Joe Biden gave $16 billion of American money to Iran in 2023.
Reasoning:
The claim is not accurate for two reasons. First, the amount in question is $6 billion, not $16 billion. Second, the money wasn’t U.S. taxpayer dollars to begin with; the funds were Iranian financial assets that had been frozen in South Korea due to diplomatic tensions with Washington and were blocked again following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
In August 2023, the United States agreed to South Korea allowing Iran to convert the equivalent of roughly $6 billion USD from South Korean won to euros, and to have the money transferred to an account in Qatar. The funds were for Iranian oil legally purchased by South Korea (prior to new U.S. sanctions put in place in 2019).
Qatar agreed to hold the money in question in restricted accounts, where they could only be used for humanitarian goods, such as medicine and food, which are allowed under American sanctions. The agreement came in exchange for the release of five detained Americans in Iran.
However, after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, the U.S. administration indicated that Iran would no longer have access to these funds, and the No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act introduced sanctions in that regard.
Fact or Fiction?
Fiction. The claim that President Joe Biden gave $16 billion of American money to Iran in 2023 is not supported by the facts.
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