He later posted a photo that appears to show Rezaian standing on a tarmac outside a plane. There were no additional details. The fourth prisoner was identified by USA officials and Iranian media as Nosratollah Khosrawi.
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“Those who wished to depart Iran have left”, according to a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter and privacy concerns for the families. “We don’t make that judgment”. For the past 18 months both editors have been lobbying Iran to release Rezaian, the Post’s Tehran correspondent.
“I’ve met with some of the families”.
The government’s IRNA news outlet confirmed the release of four dual nationals, but did not name the prisoners.
“We look forward to the joyous occasion of welcoming him back to the Washington Post newsroom”, publisher Frederick J. Ryan Jr. said in a statement.
Rezaian’s brother Ali said “Jason’s release has brought indescribable relief and joy to our family – this nightmare is approaching an end”.
Rezaian, 39, a native of Marin County, Calif., had been held in Iran’s Evin Prison for what the Fars News Agency in Iran, citing an Iranian Revolutionary Guard report Saturday, said were “attempts to help the U.S. Senate to advance its regime change plots in Iran”.
Iranian, dual citizens freed in U.S.
A fifth man, student Matthew Trevithick, will also be freed, Tehran later announced.
Obama administration officials, sensitive to criticism that they have capitulated to Iran on many issues, attributed the break in the prisoner dispute to the new climate of diplomacy they have cultivated with Iran during the nuclear negotiations and after the deal was finalized. Iranian officials and US administration officials confirmed the news Saturday.
The release of the prisoners and the nuclear deal developments capped weeks of intense U.S.-Iran diplomacy that took several unexpected turns after an Iranian ballistic missile test in October and then the detention on January 12 by Iran of 10 U.S. Navy sailors and their two boats in the Persian Gulf.
Trevithick has left Iran, administration officials said.
He said Iran has fulfilled its obligations included in last year’s nuclear deal. The nuclear agreement “accelerated” the prisoner swap, Kerry said.
The Americans were exchanged for seven people charged or convicted of crimes in the United States, and the dropping of US cases against 14 others whose arrest was sought.
Martin Baron, the Post’s executive editor, and Douglas Jehl, the foreign editor, said Sunday that they hadn’t spoken with Rezaian yet.
Four of the five detainees were still in the country because “logistical steps” were still ongoing, an official said.
“The United States stands as a beacon of freedom and hope for those across the globe, and as such, we must continue to fight for the safe return of those wrongfully imprisoned overseas based on their religious beliefs”.
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. Because it all became real”, the congressman told CNN.
The news agency adds that a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, Robert Levinson, disappeared in Iran in 2007 while working for the CIA on an unapproved intelligence mission. The family suspects Levinson is being held in Iran despite Tehran’s claims to the contrary. He and his family deny any wrongdoing, and say his imprisonment has included physical and mental torture and long periods of solitary confinement in a tiny cell. “But once again, Bob Levinson has been left behind”.
Salehi was subsequently released, but Rezaian continued to be held by Iranian authorities, who “repeatedly violated Iran’s own laws” by severely limiting his contact with the lawyer, failing to inform either him or his lawyer of the verdict or sentence, and refusing to release him “in the absence of a public conviction”.
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Rezaian, who has covered Iran for the Post since 2012, grew up in Marin County, California, and spent most of his life in the United States. It ranged from exporting electronic components, satellite services, marine navigation and military equipment to Iran.
