Iran can't access $6 billion from hostage deal, Biden official tells Dems

• Punchbowl News was first to report his comments.

Why it matters: Republicans have seized on President Biden's decision to release some $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue as part of a hostage swap deal last month to suggest Biden is helping to fund Hamas, the Iran-backed group that carried out the attacks in Israel over the weekend.

• Vulnerable Democrats have joined Republicans in calling for Biden to prevent the $6 billion from being spent by Tehran.
• The Biden administration has insisted that none of the funds, which were transferred from a South Korean account to a Qatari one, have been used.

What they're saying: Today's closed-door comments from Adeyemo went a step further than the administration's public arguments.

• From the White House podium, officials have insisted that any suggestion that the $6 billion has been used by Hamas is untrue.
• "I'm telling you, nothing's been accessed and we have oversight," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters today. "We have oversight over what can be accessed and for what purposes."

• Speaking in Tel Aviv, Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a similar point. "None of the funds that have now gone to Qatar have actually been spent or accessed in any way by Iran."

The other side: Ali Karimi Magham, a spokesperson for Iran's UN mission in New York, posted on social media: "The U.S. government knows that it can NOT renege on the agreement."

• "The money rightfully belongs to the people of Iran, earmarked ... to facilitate the acquisition of all essential requisites for the Iranians."