Relations between Iran and the USA remain tense despite the successfully negotiated swap and the lifting of American sanctions as part of the formal implementation of the nuclear deal, which also occurred Saturday.
Advertisement
In this image made from video, former U.S Marine Amir Hekmati, center, is flanked by MI congressman Dan Kildee, left, and Hekmati’s brother-in-law Ramy Kurdi as he speaks to the media in Landstuhl, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016.
At first, Hekmati said, the prisoners were told that they would be leaving in two hours, but their departure on a private plane didn’t occur until nearly two and half days later.
“If this was a situation in which we knew Bob Levinson was in a prison cell in Iran, we’d have a different outcome here”, McGurk said.
Representative Dan Kildee discusses Amir Hekmati’s return to the United States.
“We do believe we should test whether or not there can be additional cooperation, or at least constructive dialogue”, a senior USA administration official told reporters. “It will take a little bit of help, and that starts here”.
Officials have said Hekmati was put in solitary confinement and subjected to sleep deprivation.
When we spoke with Virginia Tech’s Marc Edwards last week he put a lot of the blame of the Flint water crisis on the actions of EPA Region 5. Like I said, I feel alive for the first time. “I was very anxious that maybe the Iranian side was going to make new demands in the last minute or that the deal wasn’t going to work out”.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said that 28 Iranians “were freed or were relieved of judicial restrictions” under the agreement.
So, you met with Amir Hekmati today.
But amid all the celebrations, another family said it had been left “crushed and outraged”.
For now, Hekmati is focused on getting home soon, though it’s not yet clear when he’ll be released from the hospital, Kildee said. He did honor to his country. “He’s been watching TV, seeing people on TV talking about him and is looking forward to being able to get out and talk for himself”. The former Marine infantryman and Arabic and Persian linguist was accused of espionage and other charges in 2012.
Critics of Obama’s Iran policy at home and overseas pounced on the details of the prisoner exchange and the new economic opportunities being afforded Tehran while it still supports Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. A fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, who had been detained in Iran for roughly 40 days, was released separately.
Kildee launched a Free Amir campaign, engaging in private negotiations with the Swiss and Iranian governments – Switzerland represents US interests with Iran – and working with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, according to the Detroit Free Press. Hekmati and his family have insisted that he had traveled to Iran to visit his grandmother.
Albright rang Kildee on Monday during dinner.
“I’m going to make it my business to make sure the law is clarified so that the EPA does have the ability to step in and require a state agency that is failing to protect public health to do so, or remove that state agency from responsibility”, says Kildee.
Was this weekend’s nuclear deal and Washington’s surprise prisoner swap with Tehran the final high point of a one-off diplomatic initiative or the start of a real realignment?
Advertisement
Asked how he coped with his time in captivity, Hekmati said, “I didn’t want to let any of my fellow Marines down, and the reputation of the Marine Corps”.
