“We are relieved that this 545-day nightmare for Jason and his family is finally over”, publisher Frederick J. Ryan, Jr.
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But early Sunday morning in Tehran, the plane scheduled to take them out of the country had not taken off for unexplained reasons, Washington Post reported.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a US news organization advocate for one of their journalists as well as WaPo did with Rezaian”, Arash Karami of AI-Monitor tweeted.
President Barack Obama said Sunday “tireless” diplomacy made the prisoners’ release possible. None have been charged or convicted of any terrorism-related or violent crimes, the official said, but were instead charged or convicted of crimes related to the evasion of Iranian sanctions.
Six of the seven are dual citizens. They welcomed news that the Americans were coming home but offered little to no credit to the president for the negotiations that secured the freedom of the prisoners. 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 global community.
In a statement, Hekmati’s family said: “It is hard to put into words what our family feels right now”.
The prisoner deal was the culmination of months of diplomatic contacts, secret talks and legal maneuvering which came close to falling apart because of a threat by Washington in December to impose fresh sanctions on Iran for recent ballistic missile tests. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting in Vienna with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and other officials involved in the accord, and it was expected that such certification could come Saturday.
The United States also agreed to drop charges against 14 other Iranians whose extradition to the United States seemed unlikely, a USA official said.
It is believed that Mr Rezaian and the three other prisoners were being flown to Switzerland before being taken to a United States military base in Germany for medical treatment.
The officials said they would ensure the Americans were in good health and reunited with their families, but declined to discuss further logistics of the transfer because of privacy concerns.
“As many of you know, Amir’s father is very ill and soon he will embrace his son once more”, the family statement said. There is hope “that having Amir back gives him some strength”.
As pleased as he was with the release of Pastor Abedini and the others, Pittenger left no doubt that his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and the theocratic regime in Tehran remain unchanged. “Because it all became real”, the congressman told CNN.
Former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati of Flint, Michigan. The Iranians originally sought 19 people as part of the exchange; US officials whittled down the number to seven.
Rubio also noted that Central Intelligence Agency contractor Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007, is not among those released. “But once again, Bob Levinson has been left behind”, the Levinson family said in a statement.
Iranian state television yesterday announced that Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post reporter who has been held in an Iranian prison on spy charges for nearly 18 months, was freed along with three other Iranian-Americans in a prisoner swap on the eve of the lifting of United States sanctions against Iran. The U.S.is returning seven Iranians accused or convicted of violating economic sanctions against Iran. The pastor was jailed in 2012 for reportedly undermining national security, and supporters have said his arrest is due to his conversion to Christianity.
On Saturday, Republicans said that Obama should not have given up Iranian prisoners because it made the United States look weak and that the USA prisoners should have been released without condition.
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Androphy said the pardon covered Mechanich and Tooraj Faridi, both of Houston, and Khosro Afghahi of Los Angeles.
