American Tax Dollars for the Mullahs

American Tax Dollars for the Mullahs - WSJ:
Ali Khamenei congratulated Iran’s diplomats on Tuesday for making the “front of arrogance and bullying”—that would be the U.S.—retreat. 
Iran’s Supreme Leader has good reason to be happy. 
Having preserved the core of his nuclear capabilities, his regime is now on the receiving end of a financial windfall.
Take the financial component of the nuclear accord that took formal effect on Saturday.
In addition to lifting most sanctions and releasing more than $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets, the Obama Administration over the weekend agreed to pay the mullahs a separate $1.7 billion to settle an Iranian claim dating to the 1970s.
That amount includes a $400 million trust fund used by the Shah to purchase American arms before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, plus $1.3 billion in interest. 
You can argue whether the trust fund properly belongs to the regime that overthrew the Shah, but at least that $400 million was originally Iranian money.
The $1.3 billion interest payment will come from U.S. taxpayers, which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry claims “was fixed at a reasonable rate of interest.” 
Maybe so, but it happens that $1.7 billion is also the amount at issue in a case brought by American victims of Iranian terrorism against the Central Bank of Iran. 
The plaintiffs include victims and survivors of the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, among other Iranian-directed atrocities.
The victims argue that a statute passed by Congress in 2012 entitles them to use $1.7 billion held by the Iranians in a New York account to satisfy judgments they’ve won against Tehran in U.S. courts. All told, such victims hold $45 billion in civil judgments awarded by American courts over two decades, but they have no way to collect except to attach Iranian assets in U.S. banks.
The Iranian regime has challenged the constitutionality of the pertinent portion of the 2012 law.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case last week and is expected to rule by June.
The Obama Administration argued in favor of the victims.
Yet President Obama and Mr. Kerry didn’t press for fair settlements for these victims as part of the nuclear deal and now seem to be pre-emptively reimbursing Tehran for its potential losses from the claims.
The State Department told us Wednesday the settlement isn’t connected to the claims of terrorism victims.
This week also has delivered another diplomatic triumph to Tehran, with the quashing of international arrest warrants for 14 alleged Iranian nuclear proliferators and arms smugglers. 
These include two figures associated with Mahan Air, an airline that the U.S. alleges helps arm Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria and transports members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Treasury in September warned that it “will continue to expose Mahan’s front companies, and to remind governments and the private industry in the 24 cities where Mahan continues to fly that they risk exposure to U.S. sanctions.”
Yet as research by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies has shown, Mahan planes continue to fly routes from Tehran to destinations in Syria, and the airline acquired nine new aircraft last year. The quashing of an Interpol red notice for Mahan’s CEO belies Treasury’s promise.
Mr. Obama has repeatedly assured Congress and American allies in the Middle East that his nuclear deal wouldn’t foreclose the U.S. from punishing Iranian terrorism and regional aggression.
Mr. Khamenei will conclude otherwise after the American President’s most recent concessions.