Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian was scheduled to be released Saturday to the US after more than 500 days in Iranian captivity.
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The three former prisoners, including the Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, arrived late afternoon in Geneva from Tehran, aboard a military plane of the Swiss Air Force.
The exchange also didn’t cover Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman who advocated better ties between Iran and the U.S. He was thought to have been arrested in October. “We don’t make that judgment”.
“It will be like Ronald Reagan, where as soon as he took office, the hostages were released from Iran”, Rubio said.
Rezaian’s family reported that his health deteriorated in prison, where he lost weight and suffered from high blood pressure, and that he was held for months in isolation without access to a lawyer.
A statement from a senior administration official did not name specific prisoners and provided only sparse details.
A senior Obama administration official pushed back against criticism of the prisoner swap, saying that those held in the United States were not a major threat, and the administration made a “judgment” that brought detained Americans home. The Post and the US government have denied the accusations, as has Rezaian.
The Post released a statement Saturday saying that, “While we are hopeful, we have not received any official word of Jason’s release”.
Iran has released four imprisoned US citizens, including Boise pastor Saeed Abedini, as part of a swap, the office of Tehran’s prosecutor announced on Saturday, according to Iranian news media.
While Rezaian has been freed, the Committee to Protect Journalists noted Iran’s disturbing treatment of other journalists.
He was arrested at the same time as his wife Yeganeh Salehi, an Iranian who at that time was a journalist for The National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper.
Their release was announced Saturday, the same day sanctions against Iran were lifted as part of its nuclear deal.
Kerry said he would remain at work on other Americans still being held in Iran.
Diplomats from the United States and Iran worked for more than a year in negotiating the complex prisoner swap, officials said. Negotiations over the nuclear deal resulted in the first direct U.S. negotiations with Iran in 2009, and since then Iran, its economy battered by sanictons, has increasingly sent signals it wants to re-engage with the worldwide community.
USA officials said the Iranians were either sentenced or awaiting trial in the United States but were not associated with terrorism.
Two congressmen are headed to Germany on Sunday to greet Rezaian and Hekmati.
“We actually shook hands thinking we had an agreement”, Kerry said.
Hekmati, of Flint, Michigan, was detained in August 2011 on espionage charges.
He added, “Today is an incredible day for all of us”.
“I’ve met with some of the families”.
The agreement also calls for Iranian officials to “continue cooperating with the United States to determine the whereabouts of Robert Levinson”, a USA official said.
A photograph of him speaking with Zarif and Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s brother, Hossein Fereydoun, captured the moment. “But once again, Bob Levinson has been left behind”.
“Through a diplomatic channel that was established with the focus of getting our detained USA citizens home, we can confirm Iran has released from imprisonment four Americans detained in Iran”, one of the USA officials said.
In return, the U.S.is pardoning or commuting the sentences of an Iranian and six dual citizens. Sadeghi had been charged in the sanctions violation case against Mechanic and the two other men.
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As news emerged that Iran has agreed to release four Americans in a prisoner exchange, the loved ones of a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent still missing there said they were devastated he was “left behind”.
