One of the weaknesses of applying an American or European mentality to Iran is that the political culture is fundamentally different. In an undemocratic system

One of the weaknesses of applying an American or European mentality to Iran is that the political culture is fundamentally different. In an undemocratic system where protest is put down violently, you can't apply the logic that the government is a manifestation of the political ethos of the people. That is not the case in a country where the government is willing to kill hundreds of its own citizens every time its grip on power is threatened, and where people are not permitted free access to information. Hell, the people are not even permitted to dance at concerts. Those who currently run the government in Iran are veterans of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Khamenei in particular. There is an unmistakeable mafia character to the present government, and a very large problem with corruption. The government of Iran is not an artifact of the people, and that pile of cash will not be distributed evenly amongst the citizens. If Obama chose to give cash to the Islamic regime, I am sure he believed it was the right thing to do. But the idea that a group of kleptocrats is entitled to settlement money paid to reimburse funds frozen from the regime that they ran out of town is misguided, because it assumes that money which came from the Iranian people will go to the Iranian people.