Posted on 08/10/2023 11:18:06 AM PDT by thegagline
The United States and Iran have reached an agreement to win the freedom of five imprisoned Americans in exchange for several jailed Iranians and the unfreezing of about $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue, according to several people familiar with the deal.
As a first step in the agreement, which comes after more than two years of quiet negotiations, Iran has released into house arrest five Iranian American dual citizens, according to the lawyer for one of the prisoners.
The prisoners are Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz, who had all been imprisoned on unsubstantiated charges of spying, as well as two others whose families withheld their names. One of the unnamed Americans is a scientist, and the other is a businessman, according to two people briefed on the arrangements of the release.
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Biden administration officials declined to comment or to confirm details about what Iran will get in return. But the people familiar with the agreement said that when the Americans are allowed to return to the United States, the Biden administration will release a handful of Iranian nationals serving prison sentences for violating sanctions on Iran.
The United States will also unfreeze nearly $6 billion of Iran’s assets in South Korea, putting the funds into an account in the central bank of Qatar, according to the people familiar with the deal. The account will be controlled by the government of Qatar and regulated so Iran can gain access to the money only to pay vendors for humanitarian purchases such as medicine and food, they said.
The deal with Iran — a bitter adversary of the United States — is the latest in a series of high-profile prisoner swaps engineered in secret by the Biden administration in an effort to bring home Americans whom the State Department deems wrongfully detained in foreign countries.
Mr. Namazi, 51, was given a 10-year sentence and has been held in Evin Prison since 2015 on charges of “collaborating with a hostile state.” Mr. Sharghi, a businessman, was sentenced in 2020 to 10 years in prison on charges of spying. Mr. Tahbaz, a conservationist who was arrested in 2018, was sentenced to 10 years on charges of having “contacts with the U.S. government.”
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A key part of the agreement has been the Biden administration’s willingness to unfreeze $6 billion of Iran’s oil revenue held in South Korea.
The release of the Iranian funds is likely to be contentious in the United States. Republicans have repeatedly condemned the idea of allowing Iran to have direct access to its frozen financial assets, which could end up in the hands of its elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and be used to fund and arm militants across the Middle East.
Paying Iran $6 Billion to move Americans from a prison to house arrest. An expensive difference without a distinction.
And a player to be named later?
two words, Valerie Jarret.
NO NO NO NO, this is nothing more than paying a ransom to a kidnapper and then setting him free to do it again.
FYI the United States has never formally ratified or expressed any substantive concession with respect to the “popular” concept of dual U.S-[Insert Name of Another Country Here] citizenship.
RFK Jr. will be roaring like a lion about this in 3...2...1...
6 billion is more than Iran’s yearly defense budget. Guess what they will invest it in??
Death to America
Good going, Brandon
Dang, taking prisoners is a profitable action!
$6 Billion in a Qatari shell fund for “ humanitarian use”
Because Iran is a really humanitarian regime
Maybe Iran will take more prisoners!
Esp if they can find a minority trannie!
( ps that’s why our stated policy used to be to not negotiate with State kidnappers and terrorists)
“A key part of the agreement has been the Biden administration’s willingness to unfreeze $6 billion”
for people stuck in Iran?
Why?
Don’t phookin go there.
can make money doing Bid ness? then YOU pay to get out.
Keep the cash and help pay down what was spent.
The Big guy and his ilk are such dopes!
Pathetic actually!
MSM will say Traitor Joe “has freed Americans in Iran!” When it’s nothing but a $6B gift to people who hate us.
Dual citizenship is not, AFAIK, legally recognized. It’s just winked at by the US government.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/387/253/
No doubt we are bribing the Iranians not to send any more drones to Russia. The hostage release is the cover story.
Section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) states that “the term ‘national of the United States’ means (A) a citizen of the United States, or (B) a person who, though not a citizen of the United States, owes permanent allegiance to the United States.” Therefore, U.S. citizens are also U.S. nationals. Non-citizen nationality status refers only individuals who were born either in American Samoa or on Swains Island to parents who are not citizens of the United States. The concept of dual nationality means that a person is a national of two countries at the same time. Each country has its own nationality laws based on its own policy. Persons may have dual nationality by automatic operation of different laws rather than by choice. For example, a child born in a foreign country to U.S. national parents may be both a U.S. national and a national of the country of birth. Or, an individual having one nationality at birth may naturalize at a later date in another country and become a dual national.
U.S. law does not impede its citizens' acquisition of foreign citizenship whether by birth, descent, naturalization or other form of acquisition, by imposing requirements of permission from U.S. courts or any governmental agency. If a foreign country's law permits parents to apply for citizenship on behalf of minor children, nothing in U.S. law impedes U.S. citizen parents from doing so.
U.S. law does not require a U.S. citizen to choose between U.S. citizenship and another (foreign) nationality (or nationalities). A U.S. citizen may naturalize in a foreign state without any risk to their U.S. citizenship.
U.S. dual nationals owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country (or countries, if they are nationals of more than one). They are required to obey the laws of both countries, and either country has the right to enforce its laws. Claims of other countries upon U.S. dual-nationals may result in conflicting obligations under the laws of each country. U.S. dual nationals may also face restrictions in the U.S. consular protections available to U.S. nationals abroad, particularly in the country of their other nationality.
U.S. nationals, including U.S. dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. U.S. dual nationals may also be required by the country of their foreign nationality to use that country’s passport to enter and leave that country. Use of the foreign passport to travel to or from a country other than the United States is not inconsistent with U.S. law.
Good info!
As is the reality that (non-foundling) individuals born in one of the United States, without more, lack sufficient basis to claim U.S. citizenship.
Ignored by the U.S. federal government. That is, of course, unless and until Donald John Trump is re-immaculated as POTUS #47.
Nevertheless, it is axiomatic that any foreign national who swears an oath to become a U.S. Citizen via naturalization should not be allowed to hedge their bets but instead should forswear fidelity to any and all foreign sovereigns with respect to which they previously held citizenship/subjectship.
Interesting take, thanks. -OGINJ
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