Report: Obama tried to get extra perks for Iran

The Obama administration tried to work around U.S. sanctions on Iran to enhance financial benefits to the country after the 2015 nuclear deal, a Senate investigative committee said Wednesday. The White House said numerous times following the deal that it did not intend to allow Iran access to the U.S. financial system, but the report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said otherwise. In February 2016, the Treasury Department issued a license to allow Iran to convert Omani currency to U.S. dollars and then euros. Issuing the license wasn’t illegal, but it went beyond what the nuclear agreement required of the United States. Iran never did make the transaction because no U.S. bank wanted to take the risk of doing it. “The Obama administration misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the subcommittee’s chairman.