The three other Americans in the deal – former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, pastor Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari – were scheduled to be flown to Switzerland on Sunday and transferred to the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, for medical evaluation, U.S. officials said.
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Ali Saboonchi of Parkville, Maryland, was one of seven Iranians who were released Saturday in a negotiated exchange between the two countries. They spoke about the prisoner exchange on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The U.S. also removed so-called red notices from Interpol and dismissed charges against 14 Iranians whom it believed would never be extradited.
The scheme involved as much as $10 million dollars being transferred to Iran, for which Modanlou received 70 years in prison.
“I know the internal bleeding has been on and off for the last three and a half years, and so I’m hoping that that’s one of the things that is being treated right now in Germany”, said Naghmeh.
It’s unclear if they will leave the US for Iran. They are free to stay in the United States.
Iranian, dual citizens freed in U.S.
“Iran has undertaken significant steps that many people – and I do mean many – doubted would ever come to pass”, Secretary of State John Kerry said in remarks in Geneva.
A fifth prisoner, American student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately on Saturday, a United States official said.
“This historic deal is both strong and fair, and it meets the requirements of all”, Mogherini declared, saying it serves to “improve regional and global peace, security and stability”. As the names reverberated on social media and TV news channels on Saturday, the swap was widely applauded in the USA despite charges by Republican presidential hopefuls that it showed the latest American “weakness”.
A report by the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted a statement from the Tehran prosecutor’s office as saying the inmates were freed “within the framework of exchanging prisoners”. “Everybody is happy except the Zionists, the warmongers who are fuelling sectarian war among the Islamic nation, and the hardliners in the US congress”, he said.
Rouhani, who has promised that 2016 will be a “year of prosperity” for Iranians, told lawmakers on Sunday that following the lifting of sanctions Iran would seek foreign investment of $30-$50 billion annually, to dramatically spur growth to eight percent. If so, this partially explains the administration’s reluctance to sanction Iran for its missile tests. But they had indicated a prisoner deal would be separate from Saturday’s expected “implementation” of the nuclear pact. “Every time we show weakness it is a victory for Iran”, he said at a town hall, according to Reuters. Trevithick’s parents said in a statement that he had been held for 40 days in Evin Prison.
Rezaian’s family said in a statement that his release “has brought indescribable relief and joy to our family – this nightmare is approaching an end”.
The negotiations over the American detainees grew out of the Iran nuclear talks.
Iran’s Gulf Arab adversaries were silent on news of the nuclear deal’s implementation, in what is perhaps a sign of unease at the rapprochement. He was the first USA president to call the country “The Islamic Republic of Iran” in a Persian New Year’s message to the Iranian people.
USA officials stressed that the Americans were a priority. He says their release is “one-time gesture” to Iran.
Trevithick’s release was not part of the prisoner swap, but US officials did “indicate to Foreign Minister Zarif that it’d be important for them to try to resolve some of the other cases of Americans detained in the context of this ‘deal, ‘” a senior administration official told CNN.
The family of Robert Levinson, who went missing in Iran in 2007 and whose whereabouts remain unknown, started a frustrated hashtag of their own: #WhatAboutBob.
Iran has denied holding him.
The exchange also didn’t cover Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman who advocated better ties between Iran and the U.S. He was reportedly arrested in October.
Asked before the new sanctions were announced how Iran would react to fresh measures against it, Rouhani on Sunday had said: “Any action will be met by a reaction”.
“He’s been incarcerated for nine months for a crime that he’s just accused of but did not commit”, said lawyer Joel Androphy.
“I was just thrilled, I got chills up my spine”, the principal of Marin Academy, where Rezaian graduated in 1994, told KTVU. “You would expect this in some third-world country, not the United States”.
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Madanloo, of Maryland, is serving an eight-year sentence for conspiring to illegally provide satellite services to Iran, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
