The White House Defends Prisoner Swap Deal with Iran

The White House defended the prisoner swap agreement between the United States and Iran on Wednesday, which has drawn criticism from Republicans, stating that Iran will not receive any relief from U.S. sanctions through this agreement. A document reviewed by Reuters on Monday revealed that Washington issued a sanctions exemption to allow the transfer of six billion dollars of frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar as part of the prisoner exchange deal with the Islamic Republic. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby told reporters, "This is not a payment of any kind. It is not a ransom. This is not American taxpayer money. We have not lifted any of our sanctions on Iran."