After the Biden administration unlocked $6 billion in frozen funds, the five Americans who were imprisoned in Iran have returned to the United States. Their arrival in Fort Belvoir, Va. early Tuesday morning was met with applause, cheers, and tears from their loved ones.
On Monday, the prisoners, along with two family members who were unable to leave Iran, left Tehran on a Qatari plane bound for Doha. In Doha, the released prisoners hugged the U.S. ambassador to Qatar before boarding the plane to return to the U.S.
President Biden celebrated their release in a statement, declaring that “five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home.” Siamak Namazi, a 51-year-old Iranian-American businessman, was the first to step off the plane in Virginia.
The other prisoners released include Moran Tahbaz, a British-American conservationist of Iranian descent, Emad Shargi, an Iranian-American, and two unidentified individuals.
In exchange for their release, the White House agreed to grant clemency to five Iranians and issued a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion of Iranian oil sale proceeds from South Korea to a bank in Qatar. The frozen funds were proceeds from Iran’s oil sales.
While U.S. officials said the funds were intended for humanitarian purposes such as food and medicine, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suggested the money would be used “wherever we need it.” Critics, including Republicans and lawmakers from both parties, expressed concerns that this agreement could bolster Iran’s military spending and support for terrorism, as well as incentivize other hostile nations to take Americans as hostages.
Addressing these concerns, President Biden warned Americans about the risks of traveling to Iran and urged them to heed the State Department’s travel warning that advises against visiting Iran due to the risk of kidnapping and arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens.
Negotiations for the prisoner swap began last month when four of the detainees were moved from a Tehran prison to house arrest, joining the fifth detainee who was already in house arrest.
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