The other freed Americans – Amir Hekmati, Jason Rezaian, Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosravi, whose incarceration had not been publicly reported – had not yet left Iran by Saturday evening.
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– 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.
When Rezaian finally departed on Sunday morning, “wheels up” emails were exchanged among Post executives.
A fifth American, Matthew Trevithick, was released in a separate process, a U.S. official has said. “We don’t make that judgment”.
Iran’s refusal to release American citizens was a major sticking point for GOP presidential hopefuls, but even the news of their release didn’t please everyone.
Rezaian, who was born in California and holds both USA and Iranian citizenship. “They keep asking me ‘When are we going to see him?'”
The Post’s publisher said it was waiting for confirmation that Rezaian had flown out of Iran.
Rezaian “will be reunited with his family, including his brother Ali, his most effective and tireless advocate”, The Post said.
Rezaian, a 39-year-old Californian who became the Washington Post’s bureau chief in Tehran in 2012, had been languishing in Tehran’s Evin Prison since July 2014.
During almost a dozen meetings to discuss a possible prisoner swap, Kerry said he urged their release on humanitarian grounds although he anxious that the prisoner release could be complicated by Iranian politics.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a very long time”, Baron said by telephone from Landstuhl.
The announcement comes on a day when the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog is expected to announce whether Iran is in compliance with a July deal to restrict its nuclear program. Hekmati went to Iran to visit family and spend time with his ailing grandmother.
It says the Iranian people hope that the “bitterness of filling the Arak reactor with cement will be accompanied with the sweetness of filling their table”, referring to the lifting of crippling worldwide sanctions.
Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States will lift sanctions against Iran.
After landing in Switzerland, the five will then leave for an American base in Germany, the ministry said, without disclosing where the plane would arrive.
But the North Carolina lawmaker, who chairs the House Republican Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, quickly added that “the four of them should have been released from the outset of our agreeing to give them $700 million a month in sanctions relief for the privilege of their sitting down to negotiate a nuclear agreement with them”.
Zarif, Kerry said, made it clear that if they got the two tasks done, “there are ways to try to translate this and hopefully be constructive in other things”.
Trump said he would need to look into the details of the deal to free the prisoners, but he said his initial assessment was that it “doesn’t sound too good”. The U.S. will also drop Interpol “red notices” – essentially arrest warrants – on a handful of Iranian fugitives it has sought. Iran accused him of working for the Central Intelligence Agency.
Iran has denied any knowledge of his whereabouts.
But the decision was not relayed to lower-level officials who told some lawmakers on December 30 that the sanctions would be announced later that day, the officials said. “But once again, Bob Levinson has been left behind”.
In return, the U.S.is pardoning or commuting the sentences of an Iranian and six dual citizens. Iran state television has reported that the government has relea… It ranged from exporting electronic components, satellite services, marine navigation and military equipment to Iran.
“The Washington Post worked ceaselessly to bring about the release of Jason Rezaian and its leaders should be congratulated”, Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for the Atlantic, tweeted.
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Two other defendants in the case, Khosrow Afghahi and Tooraj Faridi, are also among those being offered clemency.
