Five Americans who regained their freedom from Iran, after a swap deal involving $6 billion erstwhile seized funds, made an emotional return to the United States on Tuesday ending their imprisonment “nightmare.”
US President Joe Biden, via his official Twitter handle, President Biden@POTUS tweeted:
“Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are back on American soil and in the arms of their loved ones.
“Welcome home.
“I remain unflinching in my efforts to bring home every American held hostage or wrongfully detained.”
A Monday statement by him had said: “We will continue to impose costs on Iran for their provocative actions in the region.”
They were swapped for five Iranians held in the US and the unfreezing of $6 billion in the Islamic nation’s funds.
Coming off the plane, the returning Americans were embraced by family and friends with smiles, laughs, and visible emotion, video footage from the airport showed. One of the returnees briefly waved a small Stars and Stripes handed to him.
“The nightmare is finally over,” said Babak Namazi, speaking with his arm around his returning brother Siamak at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
The welcome ceremony followed a carefully choreographed exchange, agreed after months of Qatar-mediated talks, that was triggered on Monday when the funds that had been blocked in South Korea were wired, via Switzerland, to banks in Doha.
After the transfer was confirmed, the five US prisoners plus two relatives took off on a Qatari plane from Tehran, at the same time as two of the five Iranian detainees landed in Doha on their way home. Three Iranians chose not to go to Iran.
The deal removes a point of friction between the United States, which brands Tehran a sponsor of terrorism, and Iran, which calls Washington the “Great Satan”.
But it is unclear whether it will bring the two adversaries, which have been at odds for 40 years, closer on any other issues, such as Iran’s nuclear program and its backing for regional militias or the US military presence in the Gulf and US sanctions.
The freed Americans include US-Iranian dual citizens Siamak Namazi, 51, and Emad Sharqi, 59, both businessmen, and Morad Tahbaz, 67, an environmentalist who also holds British nationality. Two of them have not been publicly identified.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who was in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, called the swap a humanitarian action.
“It can certainly be a step based upon which in the future other humanitarian actions can be taken,” he added.
Biden, a Democrat, has faced criticism from Republicans over the deal. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a prominent Republican, said the transfer of the $6 billion could encourage Iran to detain more US citizens.
Biden aides say the money belongs to Iran and is being transferred from restricted South Korean accounts to restricted accounts in Qatar, which will monitor the cash to ensure it is spent on humanitarian goods not items under US sanctions.
Relations between the United States and Iran have been especially bitter since 2018 when then-President Donald Trump pulled out of a deal aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and toughened US sanctions.
Washington suspects Iran’s nuclear program may be aimed at developing nuclear arms, a charge Iran denies.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left the door open to nuclear diplomacy, but suggested nothing was imminent.
US analysts were sceptical about prospects for progress, particularly with a US election looming in 2024.
“The prisoner swap does likely pave the way for additional diplomacy around the nuclear program this fall, although the prospect for actually reaching a deal is very remote,” said Henry Rome of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Reuters
