Five Americans previously imprisoned through Iran flew out of the country, in an exchange with the U. S. government that involved the unfreezing of about $6 billion in Iranian assets and the unfreezing of five Iranian prisoners held in the United States.
The five Americans, Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz and two other acquaintances, left Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport on Monday, a senior Biden official told The Associated Press.
The five, along with two relatives of the detainees, will be flown aboard a Qatari government plane to Doha, Qatar, from where they will then return to the United States, according to CNN.
The five men were expelled from Iran shortly after Mohammed Farzin, governor of Iran’s Central Bank, proved that $5. 9 billion in previously frozen assets had been received in South Korea.
The Treasury Department will monitor how Iran uses its assets, which come from oil revenues, after indicating that the cash can only be used for humanitarian purposes, a Biden administration official told CNN.
The unfrozen budget will be maintained through the Central Bank of Qatar, which will be accessible to the Qatari government, the New York Times reported.
The exchange includes five Iranian prisoners imprisoned in the United States, including Kaveh Afrasiabi, Mehrdad Ansair, Amin Hasanzadeh, Reza Kafrani and Kambiz Kashani, while Nasser Kanaani, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said Monday that two of them, adding Afrasiabi, remain in the United States.
President Joe Biden, who pleaded with U. S. citizens who oppose travel to Iran, welcomed the exchange and called on the Iranian government to give “a full account” of what happened to Bob Levinson, a former FBI special agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007, while announcing: sanctions against former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Intelligence Ministry for their involvement in wrongful detentions.
Biden said “five innocent Americans imprisoned in Iran, despite everything, are returning home” after “several months of complicated, principled American diplomacy. “
Former President Donald Trump criticized Biden for the prisoner swap on Truth Social, suggesting that Biden was “stupid” after “giving” $6 billion in exchange for five prisoners, while “Iran gave ZERO” (the budget was frozen in Iranian revenues).
Negotiations between the United States and Iran have been going on for months, according to ABC News. Sanctions aimed at restricting Iranian economic activity with the United States and its allies date back to 1979, when Iran’s US-aligned government was overthrown by a theocratic movement; However, relations between the two countries have deteriorated since 2018, after the United States withdrew from a nuclear program. deal. with Iran and others. The prisoner exchange comes after months of tension over the presence of US marines, fighter jets and warships in the Persian Gulf. The White House announced last month that five Americans detained in Iran would be released, noting that negotiations for “a conceivable release remain ongoing and delicate. ” The United States has negotiated other prisoner swaps with Iran, adding to a 2016 deal that saw the release of imprisoned Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and four other Americans. The United States also negotiated a prisoner swap with Russia last year, which included swapping WNBA star Britney Griner for Russian arms broker Viktor Bout, even as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine leaves relations between the two countries in jeopardy. a historically low point.
Since the United States and Iran have formal diplomatic relations, negotiations for an exchange were negotiated through Switzerland, Oman and Qatar, according to the Times.
Ansari and Kefrani were sentenced to 63 months and 30 months in criminal prison respectively, while the other three are still awaiting trial on charges ranging from allegedly stealing engineering blueprints to failing to register as a foreign agent on behalf of Iran. The criminals were sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying in Iran, but U. S. officials said they were “unjustly and inhumanely detained. “They were cleared of the crime and placed under space arrest last month.
Americans unjustly detained in Iranian jails after U. S. and Iran reached an obvious deal (Forbes)
The US reportedly reached a prisoner swap deal with Iran and agreed to $6 billion in Iranian assets (Forbes)