Namazi, the son of a former governor in the oil-rich Iranian province of Khuzestan, comes from a prominent Iranian family, which came to the United States in 1983 when he was a boy, according to The Washington Post. Namazi, who is in his early 40s, was arrested about two weeks ago as he visited relatives in Tehran, according to the Journal.
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In recent weeks, Iranian businessmen with ties to foreign companies have been arrested, interrogated and warned about entering into economic concerns controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the Journal reports, crediting the information to businessmen interviewed in and outside of Iran. The State Department has repeatedly pressed for their release.
Three Americans, all of them of Iranian heritage, were already in jail in Iran including Jason Rezaian, a correspondent for The Washington Post who was arrested in July 2014 and accused of spying.
In another opinion piece in 2013, Namazi reportedly wrote in the New York Times: “The West must relax and rationalize the terms of its sanctions regime against Iran to allow more medical goods into the country”, adding, according to the Post: “If it doesn’t, more Iranian men, women and children will suffer needlessly”. His friends said he was being held in Tehran’s Evin prison, which is where political opponents of the government are kept. “We’re looking into these reports and don’t have anything further to provide at this time”, a USA senior administration official told AFP. Iran agreed with world powers to limit its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.
The Washington-based National Iranian American Council said it was troubled by reports of Namazi’s arrest and denied suggestions that his family had a leadership role in the organization, through it acknowledged “Namazi has known members of NIAC’s staff”. “Adoption day”, when Iran was required to begin taking steps toward fulfilling its commitments, was on October 18, just days after Namazi’s arrest.
Namazi is at least the fourth American of Iranian descent to be incarcerated by the Iranian authorities and the first since the nuclear agreement was completed.
Iranian Americans are vulnerable to arrest because Iran does not recognize dual nationality.
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The Journal also cited sources to say that Namazi’s arrest dampened interests to invest money in Iran among the business community as such arrests negate country’s President Hassan Rouhani’s claims that the country has changed after the deal. Officials at Crescent Petroleum did not respond to attempts to reach them by telephone and email for comment.
