- 2 minutes ago
- From the section Middle East
Image copyright AP
Iran has released Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and three other Iranian-American prisoners as it anticipates the lifting of international sanctions.
Rezaian, 39, was convicted of espionage in Iran last year. The US citizens are being flown to Switzerland and will be taken to a US base in Germany for medical treatment.
The US said it was offering clemency to seven Iranians being held in the United States.
The other three Americans were named as Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati and and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari.
A US official said a diplomatic channel was established "with the focus of getting our detained US citizens home".
"Iran has also committed to continue co-operating with the United States to determine the whereabouts of Robert Levinson," the official said.
According to the Associated Press news agency, Mr Levinson is a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007 while working for the CIA on an unapproved intelligence mission.
A further 14 Iranians sought by the US would be removed from an Interpol wanted list, the US and Iran said.
The Iranian state news agency listed the seven Iranian citizens being held in the US as Nader Modanlo, Bahram Mechanic, Khosrow Afghani, Arash Ghahreman, Tooraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh and Ali Saboun.
News of the releases came after Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif predicted that international sanctions against his country would be lifted on Saturday.
He is in Vienna for talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry over Iran's nuclear deal.
The international nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, is expected to confirm that Iran has scaled back its atomic activities in line with the agreement.
Billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets are expected to be released and the sale of Iranian oil on the world market will again be permitted.
Iran nuclear deal: Key details
Lifting sanctions would unfreeze billions of dollars of assets and allow Iranian oil to be sold internationally.
Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post's Tehran correspondent, had been detained in Iran for more than a year before his sentencing last November. The WP has dismissed the charges as absurd.
The other three freed on Saturday were: Saeed Abedini, 35, a Christian pastor who had been imprisoned since July 2012 for organising churches in people's houses; Amir Hekmati, 32, a former Marine who spent more than four years in prison on spying charges following his arrest in August 2011 during a visit to see his grandmother. The detention of Khosrawi-Roodsari had not been previously released.
Analysis: Sebastian Usher, Middle East Editor, BBC World Service
For months after his arrest in 2014, there was uncertainty over what accusations Jason Rezaian was facing. He was held in the notorious Evin prison before finally being found guilty on charges that his lawyer said included espionage.His newspaper vigorously denied this. President Barack Obama said he would not rest until he was freed. Now, his release has been announced in what Iran calls a prisoner swap - an indication he might have been used as a bargaining chip.
Coming just before sanctions are due to be lifted on Iran, his release removes a shadow that had lain over relations between Tehran and Washington even as they were thawing with the nuclear deal.
Jason Rezaian - Now a free man
Iran's press anticipates lifting of sanctions
Many newspapers have hailed "good days ahead" for the economy, but the hardline press has lamented nuclear restrictions, with Vatan-e Emruz declaring closing the Arak reactor amounted to a "nuclear burial".Moderate Iran and reformist Mardom Salari feared Saudi Arabia and US Republicans would try to sabotage the deal, the latter predicting that "powerful hands will try to boobytrap this path".
Meanwhile Conservative Hemayat said the nuclear deal would not "resolve the problem with the village chief" - referring to the US - and hardline Keyhan argued that the deal had not led to a let-up in US "anti-Iranian propaganda".
Source: BBC Monitoring
No comments:
Post a Comment