The Providence Journal (R.I.), Aug. 11:

On the very same day that the Islamic Republic of Iran released several American hostages, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, the Iranian regime received a secret shipment of Swiss francs, euros and other currencies, equivalent to $400 million.

Whence did the payments arrive? The United States government.

The Wall Street Journal broke the story last week. It turns out that unbeknownst to Congress (let alone the American people), the Obama administration secretly sent an unmarked cargo plane to Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport on the same day as the prisoner release last January.

At a news conference last week, President Obama insisted there is nothing untoward about this, noting that he announced the $400 million payment back in January. “We do not pay ransom,” he said. The timing of the release of the prisoners was “coincidental,” a State Department official said. Moreover, the administration had no choice but to use foreign currency piled high in paying off Iran. That is because dollar transactions with the Iranian regime remain illegal under U.S. law, and Iran had been cut off from global banks.

The money was, in fact, owed to Iran, under a ruling by a world court. It had been sent to America as part of an arms deal during the Shah’s rule in the 1970s. When the Shah fell in 1979, the U.S. froze the payment.

Still, it is hard to deny that the January operation has the disturbing appearance of a ransom payment. As The Wall Street Journal reported, “U.S. officials … acknowledge that Iranian negotiators on the prisoner exchange said they wanted the cash to show they had gained something tangible.”

More broadly, this latest story seems to be another sign that the Obama administration is intensely eager to reach peaceful accommodation with Iran, a leading sponsor of terrorism, in the hopes that the regime can be brought into the family of nations and stop treating America as its greatest enemy.

While that would be wonderful, the Iranians unfortunately persist in their threats against America and its allies. And even after it inked the nuclear deal that led to the relaxation of sanctions, Tehran has gleefully continued to thumb its nose at international law. In contravention of United Nations resolutions, for example, it has more than once test-fired ballistic missiles. Yet the regime has seemingly suffered no consequences.

We certainly hope that foreign entities, including Iran, have not come to view the payment as ransom. That would only encourage the further taking of Americans as hostages. Let us hope, too, that this diplomatic dance has nothing to do with the fact that the Iranian regime is holding more Americans hostage than it was prior to the January release.