Abedini, 35, from Idaho, worked setting up churches in Iran. The US State Department confirmed yesterday that Hekmati and three other Iranian prisoners had arrived safely in Geneva, en route to a military base in Germany.
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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hailed the nuclear deal as a “golden page” in Iran’s history and said the agreement could be used as a model to resolve other regional issues.
Kildee, who read from a family statement that expressed gratitude to the USA government and those who have shared thoughts and prayers, was overcome with emotion at one point and had to pause.
He said the deal sets a “very unsafe precedent”.
Hekmati, who was born and raised in the U.S., was first imprisoned in August 2011 after he purportedly confessed to high-level espionage for the United States government.
The people released by the USA were accused of trying to steer around sanctions restricting trade with Iran. The only thing he said was, ‘I was interrogated about them, ‘ ” Ali Rezaian said.
Later on Monday, Rezaian was permitted to leave the hospital for several hours to meet at a nearby guest house with his brother, Ali Rezaian, along with his wife, mother and his visiting congressman, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.).
In a telephone call with the Post’s editors before they were able to meet Monday, Jason Rezaian said that isolation was the most hard part of his time in prison.
FILE – This file handout photo from the American Center for Law and Justice legal advocacy group taken on March 7, 2010 shows Iranian convert to Christianity Saeed Abedini posing for a picture at an unknown location.
Then, suddenly, came word that Rezaian’s release had been secured through a prisoner exchange with Iran set for last week.
But Pittenger said he was concerned that the US agreed to let go “criminals” who broke USA law, and anxious that such a swap could jeopardize the safety of Americans traveling in some foreign countries.
The fourth freed Iranian-American, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, apparently chose to remain in Iran. He said Iran’s missile industries “are fully home-made” and impervious to sanctions, the semiofficial Fars News Agency reported.
“We do believe we should test whether or not there can be additional cooperation, or at least constructive dialogue”, a senior U.S. administration official told reporters.
The Iran nuclear deal was the product of years of careful negotiations between Tehran and the P5+1 – the permanent UN Security Council members and the European Union. A former sergeant in the Marine Corps, he’s been held for four and a half years. He said there were “tears, and smiles and hugs” when the family was reunited. And we will bring him home safe and sound.
Obama met with the families of the prisoners, stating, “In some cases these Americans faced years of continued detention, and I met with some of their families”.
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The lifting of sanctions and the prisoner deal considerably reduce the hostility between Tehran and Washington that has shaped the Middle East since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979. He was sentenced to an undisclosed prison term after a closed door trial in which he apparently was given little opportunity to offer a defense.
