“Friends and colleagues at The Washington Post are elated by the wonderful news that Jason Rezaian has been released from Evin Prison and has safely left the country with his wife, Yeganeh Salehi”, the newspaper’s publisher Frederick J Ryan, Jr said in a statement.
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Pastor Saeed – a USA citizen who has been imprisoned in Iran for more than three years – was freed today along with other Americans according to government sources.
It has been a dramatic day for Iran and the U.S. Iran has released five Americans it had been holding, among them was a Washington Post reporter held for more than a year. A fifth American detained in Iran, Matthew Trevithick, was released in a move unrelated to the swap, US officials said.
Iran had initially insisted Jason Rezaian’s fate could only be decided by Tehran’s judicial system rather than through political accommodation with the U.S. But the nuclear deal, reached previous year, held out hope for increased dialogue about Rezaian and the other Americans.
“As we begin the process of reuniting and healing as a family, we ask that you respect our privacy, and again, we truly appreciate every single person involved in this effort”.
– A family member of an American freed in Iran told CNN the U.S. State Department said that a plane carrying the Americans has taken off in Iran.
The US official did not say who was aboard the plane, but The Washington Post said that those leaving included Rezaian, who has been held for almost 18 months. U.S.-Iranian suspicion still remains deeply entrenched.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Vienna to meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, spoke cryptically of a possible negotiation.
Golestaneh, an Iranian student, was charged in July 2015 with hacking into the computer networks of a Vermont-based aerodynamics company, attempting to steal software worth millions of dollars.
In Iraq, Tehran has found itself on the same side as the United States, supporting a Shi’ite-led government against the Sunni militants of Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. “I’ve seen their anguish – how they ached for their husbands and sons”, Obama said.
Kerry and other top aides to Obama, who was vacationing in Hawaii, convened a series of conference calls and concluded they could not risk losing the chance to free Americans held by Tehran. Both those men and Rezaian were the subject of widespread campaigns seeking their release.
His sister, Sarah, has said her brother renounces his dual Iranian citizenship and vows never to return to Iran if he’s allowed to leave. The deal comes after more than a year of secret negotiations, the officials said.
Iranian, European and US officials have said repeatedly over the past week that IAEA certification and implementation of the agreement was just “days” away.
” A disturbing pattern is emerging where the Obama administration is willing to negotiate the release of spies, terrorists and now criminals”, said Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a statement released Sunday.
Iranian state television says the government has freed four dual-nationality prisoners.
The U.S. Treasury had planned to announce new sanctions the last week of December against Iran for violating prohibitions against ballistic missile tests, U.S. officials said.
Iranian media outlets are reporting the release of four Iranian-American prisoners Saturday, as part of a prisoner swap.
The Abedini’s church family says they’ve been praying for this for months.
American officials didn’t want the citizens used as leverage in the nuclear talks, and didn’t want to lose their possible release if the talks failed to produce an agreement.
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Levinson, a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, was last seen on Iran’s Kish island in March 2007.
