A plane carrying five American prisoners released by Iran as part of a high-profile prisoner exchange has landed in the Qatari capital Doha, before the former detainees are expected to then fly on to the United States.
Two of the five Iranians imprisoned by the US have already arrived in Qatar, before they transit on to Iran. The three other released Iranians have decided against returning to Iran, with two staying in the US, and one going on to a third country.
Under the agreement between the US and Iran, $6 billion in Iranian funds that had been held in restricted accounts in South Korea was transferred to restricted accounts in banks in Qatar.
Iranian and US officials were notified by Qatar on Monday that the transfer had taken place, according to a source briefed on details of the matter.
The release of the Americans brings to an end a years-long nightmare for those who had been detained.
Three of those who are believed to be part of the deal – Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz, and Siamak Namazi – had all been imprisoned for more than five years. Namazi had been detained since 2015. The identities of the other two Americans are not publicly known.
Siamak Namazi’s mother Effie Namazi and Morad Tahbaz’s wife Vida Tahbaz – who were previously unable to leave Iran – were also on the flight from Iran to Doha, a senior Biden administration official said.
After stopping in the Qatari capital, they will travel on to the Washington, DC, area to be reunited with their families, the official said.
President Joe Biden celebrated the release of the five Americans “after enduring years of agony, uncertainty, and suffering.”
“Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home,” Biden wrote in a statement released Monday, shortly before the Americans were scheduled to land in Doha, Qatar. “I am grateful to our partners at home and abroad for their tireless efforts to help us achieve this outcome, including the Governments of Qatar, Oman, Switzerland, and South Korea.”
Their release represents a significant diplomatic breakthrough after years of complicated indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran. The United States and Iran do not have formal diplomatic ties. Relations further plummeted under the Trump administration, when the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and pursued a “maximum pressure” approach to Tehran. In the years since, efforts to constrain Iran’s growing nuclear program have been unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Tehran has continued to perpetrate human rights abuses against its own people. Last year’s death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s so-called morality police prompted nationwide protests which were brutally suppressed.
The release is the latest high-profile deal negotiated by the Biden administration to secure the release of Americans deemed wrongly detained abroad following the release of Americans from Russia and Venezuela.
Meanwhile, the US will issue new sanctions against Iran following the release. They will target Tehran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, senior administration officials said.
They are the second set of sanctions imposed under an executive order signed by President Joe Biden that seeks to punish organizations or criminals responsible for holding Americans captive.
The deal to free the Americans from Iranian detention “has not changed our relationship with Iran in any way,” a senior Biden administration official said.
“Iran is an adversary and a state sponsor of terrorism,” the first senior official said. “We will hold them accountable wherever possible.”
“We are focused daily on a policy for the Middle East that combines deterrence with diplomacy to reduce risk of Iran’s aggression. It’s called de-escalating conflicts through diplomacy wherever possible, and contributing and building a more stable, integrated, prosperous Middle East region,” the official described.
“But it goes without saying that when we have an opportunity to bring American citizens home, we do seek to seize it, and that’s what we’re doing here,” they said. – Al Jazeera, CNN
