– Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, released from Iranian detention under a prisoner swap agreement between Tehran and Washington, has left the country along with his wife, the newspaper’s publisher says.
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The fourth freed Iranian-American, whose name was given by the State Department as Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, was also offered a seat by Swiss diplomats, but he opted to stay in Iran, he said.
The United States also agreed to drop charges against 14 other Iranians whose extradition to the United States seemed unlikely, a USA official said.
In Tehran, ordinary Iranians were cautious about what the future holds after the lifting of sanctions.
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, did not address the prisoner swap on Sunday.
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.
“When it comes to Roodsari, privacy considerations preclude us form offering any more details”, one senior administration official noted in an email to ABC News Monday morning.
Huffman said the freed prisoners are expected to be transported to a USA military hospital in Germany for medical evaluation.
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. All were accused of selling technology to Iran in violation of American sanctions.
Every aspect of the nuclear deal and prisoner exchange are bound to be discussed – perhaps heatedly – in the ongoing presidential campaign. He did not comment on whether the lifting of the sanctions after two years of talks with world powers, including the United States, would lead to more cooperation by Iran in Syria.
The three later left Geneva and arrived in Germany, according to a U.S. State Department official.
“What is clear is that Iran will now have more resources to dedicate to their terrorism and aggression in the region and in the world, and Israel is prepared to deal with any threat”, he said. The nuclear agreement “accelerated” the prisoner swap, Kerry said. Problems remain. Iran still is a supporter of terrorist groups and an avowed enemy of Israel, a key American ally.
“And believe me, it’s hard when somebody says to you, ‘Hey, you give us this guy, we let them all out.’ And you have to say no. And you know you’re keeping people in a not very nice place for the next whatever number of months”, he said.
“We started to conclude that Mary and Yegi were being held to destroy the deal”, the USA official said.
Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007 while working for the CIA on an unapproved intelligence mission, wasn’t part of the deal.
Several hours later, around 2 a.m.in Geneva, Iranian officials summoned McGurk to their hotel room and said the deal had to be consummated without Rezaian’s wife and mother. “We have gone to other countries, we have involved other people, there have been all kinds of clues that have come in and they have even followed up on”, Kerry said. “But once again, Bob Levinson has been left behind”.
In return, the U.S.is pardoning or commuting the sentence of an Iranian and six dual citizens.
There have been mixed reports in the Iranian media about the identity of the fourth person. It ranged from exporting electronic components, satellite services, marine navigation and military equipment to Iran. But that was only one of a number of moving parts involving the United States and Iran.
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If last weekend’s developments were not frenzied enough, they came a few days after the Iranians seized, but then quickly released, the crew of two American naval patrol boats that had purportedly drifted into Iranian waters.
