Posted on 08/10/2023 6:24:27 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
After it was reported on Thursday that Iran had transferred five Iranian Americans from prison to house arrest, it became clear that a deal between the Biden administration and the radical Islamist state had been reached — which would include billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets in exchange for the Americans.
This again raises the question — which we’ll tackle later in the article: Should the United States pay ransom to rogue states and others for the release of captured Americans?
Anyway, sure enough, the United States and Iran have reached an agreement in which the Islamist regime will free the five Americans in exchange for several Iranian nationals serving prison sentences for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran — and unfreeze $6 billion of Iran’s assets in South Korea, which will be transferred to an account in the central bank of Qatar.
The account will reportedly be controlled by the government of Qatar and regulated so that Iran can only access the money for “humanitarian purchases, such as medicine or food.” Uh-huh.
The U.S. prisoners include Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi, and Morad Tahbaz, all of whom the Biden administration claims were wrongfully detained on bogus spying charges. The names of the other two have been withheld by their families — one of whom is reportedly a scientist, and the other one a businessman.
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement:
We will continue to monitor their condition as closely as possible. Of course, we will not rest until they are all back home in the United States. Until that time, negotiations for their eventual release remain ongoing and are delicate. We will, therefore, have little in the way of details to provide about the state of their house arrest or about our efforts to secure their freedom.
In other words, it appears that Iran still holds all the cards, with the Biden administration effectively self-neutered — despite the $6 billion that the mullahs in Tehran desperately want to get their hands on.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller also released a statement.
We are relieved to learn that Iranian authorities have released five U.S. citizens — Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi, and two individuals who at this time wish to remain private — from prison to house arrest. We are in touch with the families of U.S. citizens involved, and we continue to monitor these individuals’ health and welfare closely.
While we welcome the news of these individuals’ release from prison to house arrest, they should never have been imprisoned in the first place. We continue to work diligently to bring these individuals home to their loved ones. They must be allowed to depart Iran and reunite with their loved ones as soon as possible.
Same story, different words.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in May that “There are wrongfully detained Americans elsewhere around the world, and we’re working on that very, very hard,” which takes us back to my earlier question: Should the United States make ransom payments in exchange for wrongfully-detained citizens?
The answer is a tough one, depending on who answers it.
Needless to say, if the U.S. is willing to pay for the release of Americans, the world’s bad guys will be incentivized to detain our citizens based solely on the belief that ransom money will be forthcoming in exchange for their release. On the other hand, the loved ones of those captured, of course, have an entirely different respective — and rightly so.
So what’s the right answer? I don’t believe there exists a singular “right” or “wrong” answer.
While every unlawful detention of an American citizen by a foreign adversary is problematic at best, the circumstances of each occurrence vary. That said, while ransoms might be paid and other demands met, the United States government should never fold up like a cheap suit.
Unfortunately, that ship sailed in the Biden administration early on.
I wonder just how much of a kickback he’ll be getting out of this...
So, no mention of which arms smugglers, etc., Biden is releasing back into the arms of Iran?
Or be used to kill more Ukrainians. Guaranteed they will blow someone up with it...
To: Nextrush
https://www.daily-sun.com/post/481162/Iran-says-ready-for-prisoner-swap-with-US
Iran says ready for prisoner swap with US
www.daily-sun.com
AFP
10th May, 2020 05:12:36
Editor : Enamul Hoque Chowdhury
4 posted on 5/11/2020, 8:40:45 PM by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: piasa
Iran said Sunday it had expressed readiness for a full prisoner exchange with the United States “with no preconditions” but that Washington was yet to respond.
“We said some time ago that we are ready to exchange all Iranian and American prisoners,” ISNA news agency quoted government spokesman Ali Rabiei as saying.
“It now appears that America is more ready than before to end this situation,” he added, noting that Iran was waiting for a reply.
“Washington has been notified of our readiness and we think no mediator is needed.”
The Islamic republic in December freed Xiyue Wang, a US academic,...
Xiyue Wang, a US academic, in an exchange for scientist Massoud Soleimani and said it was open to further swaps.
Rabiei also expressed concern about the health of some Iranian prisoners detained in the United States and claimed they are not being treated well.
One of them is Sirous Asgari, an Iranian scientist infected with the novel coronavirus while in detention, according to the Iranian foreign ministry.
A ministry spokesman said last week that “everything is prepared” and declared “he will soon return to Iran” without elaborating further.
Iran is holding US citizens Siamak Namazi, convicted on charges that include espionage, his father Baquer and environmental expert Morad Tahbaz.
According to the US State Department, Iran temporarily released US Navy veteran Micheal White on March 19.
Both countries have called for releasing prisoners over the virus outbreak.
Iran is battling what is the Middle East’s most deadly outbreak, while the US has reported the highest total number of virus deaths worldwide.
The Islamic republic has temporarily released more than 100,000 inmates in several stages since March, according to its judiciary.
Iran and the US have been at loggerheads for decades.
Tensions between them have escalated since 2018 when US President Donald Trump withdrew the US from a landmark nuclear accord and reimposed sanctions on Iran.
5 posted on 5/11/2020, 8:42:16 PM by piasa
Iran Arrests American Founder of Pro-Regime Lobby
Breitbart ^ | Oct. 27, 2015
Posted on 10/30/2015, 7:36:41 AM by nuconvert
Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American citizen who helped establish a pro-Tehran lobbying group in America, has been arrested in Iran and imprisoned indefinitely.
-excerpt-
Namazi has been described as one of the “intellectual architects†of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that has been accused of working in support of the regime in Tehran.
He and NIAC Director Trita Parsi founded the organization as a way to continuously lobby for the removal of sanctions against Iran and to promote Iran’s foreign policy, while combating the pro-Israel sentiment in America, according to documents from a Cyprus convention that featured the two men.
Both Parsi and Namazi have strong connections with the Iranian regime’s President, Hassan Rouhani, and its foreign minister, Javad Zarif. The two have continued to actively communicate with members of the regime.
-excerpt-
An expert on Iran suggests the arrest is the result of a power struggle within the country. Hassan Dai, the editor of the Iranian American Forum, told Breitbart News that Namazi’s imprisonment shows the Ayatollah remains completely in control of his nation’s affairs, and that even Iran’s president is powerless to protect his acquaintances from imprisonment.
Dai explained that Namazi had consistently “lobbied in favor of a faction of the regime,†which upset the Mullahs because it would only be acceptable to “lobby for the whole regime.â€
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
The murky espionage charges against Iranian-American businessman Emad Sharghi came to light in early 2021, when an Iranian court announced that the venture capitalist had been sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison.
His family says Iran had cleared him of spying charges in December 2019 after jailing and interrogating him for months. Iran says security forces then caught Sharghi on the country’s northwestern border and re-arrested him as he tried to flee Iran while free on bail.....-—— ABC News
This guarantees more Americans will be taken as hostages.
review
The government doesn’t even try to deny negotiating with terrorists.
Time to channel some Jefferson insight into continued extortion on Iran and the Obama residence.
More money laundering by the biden crime family.
wait until Hunter and the Big Guy are looking for asylum ....
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