The Biden administration has dismissed criticism that its deal with Iran to secure the release of five Americans amounts to a "ransom payment" that could encourage similar behavior.

The administration has committed to releasing five Iranian nationals currently held in the United States, in addition to permitting the transfer of roughly $6 billion in currently restricted Iranian funds that it will be allowed to use for humanitarian purposes. Critics of the deal have argued that it both encourages Tehran to imprison more Americans and that Iran could use the money for illicit purposes outside of the rules of the agreement.

TRUMPISM 2.0: INSIDE THE FORMER PRESIDENT'S PLANS FOR A SECOND TERM

"Bad actors like Iran and like Mr. Putin in Russia don't need any incentive to continue to look for ways to wrongfully detained Americans. It's been happening a long, long time. And we have to accept the reality that it could happen again in the future," National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said Wednesday. "These bad actors don't need incentives. And this isn't going to change the calculus necessarily, of what they've been doing. What it is going to do is get our Americans home and that's what we're focused on."

"This is not a ransom payment," he added, explaining that there has been no change in the government's policy not to pay ransom demands to terrorist groups. The money being unfrozen for Iran, Kirby noted, is its own money from oil revenue and not funds from the U.S., and he described it as "not a blank check."

"They don't get to spend it any way they want. It's not $6 billion all at once," he explained. "They will have to make a request for withdrawals for humanitarian purposes only and there will be sufficient oversight to make sure that the request is valid and that is going through vendors who we and the Qataris can trust will actually contract for the goods, the medical equipment, the food, whatever it is, in an appropriate way and get it directly to the Iranian people."

Kirby also said Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was "wrong" when he said earlier this week that the money will be spent "wherever we need it."

"This money belongs to the Iranian people, the Iranian government, so the Islamic Republic of Iran will decide what to do with this money,” Raisi said, according to an Iranian government translator, per NBC News.

Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on the sanctions waivers for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar, where it will then have to make requests to access it. Several conservatives were quick to question the deal and the consequences of it.

"I am always glad when Americans are released from captivity. However, this agreement will entice rogue regimes, like Iran, to take even more Americans hostage. The ayatollah and his henchmen are terrorists and truly represent a terrorist state," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), said on X, formerly Twitter.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Sen. John Thune (R-SD), said on Facebook, "The U.S. should be unrelenting in its efforts to bring detained Americans home, but Iran will now count pallets of ransom money, putting its leaders in a better position to develop a nuclear weapon and fund terrorists. And the price to release U.S. hostages will only go up."

The Americans who will be released in Iran include Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi, and Morad Tahbaz, along with two others who were not identified, while the administration has not said which Iranians are being released in return.