Emotional Reunion: Iran Frees Five Americans in Historic Prisoner Exchange

UPDATE


Sep 18, 2023 8:24 AM CDT

In a major development, five Americans who were held captive by Iran have been released as part of a prisoner exchange. Reports from the AP indicate that a plane carrying the freed Americans departed from Tehran on Monday. While the names of three of the released individuals were disclosed earlier, the other two have chosen to keep their identities private. Some of these individuals were held captive since 2015, as reported by CNN. The United States government maintains that all five were wrongfully detained. As part of the exchange, five Iranians will be released from US prisons, and the US has also unfrozen $6 billion in Iranian funds which were previously held.

Sep 18, 2023 7:57 AM CDT

An official statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry has indicated that the long-awaited prisoner swap between the United States and Iran might take place today. Nasser Kanaani, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, made the announcement in a news conference that was broadcasted on state TV. However, the feed was abruptly cut off after Kanaani’s remarks. Kanaani stated that five Iranian citizens who were imprisoned in the US would be released, based on their will. Two of these prisoners are expected to remain in the United States. It should be noted that there has been no confirmation from Washington regarding this news.

According to a source cited by CNN, a plane from Qatar was ready in Iran to transport the five released Americans to Doha. Flight-tracking data confirms that a Qatar Airways Airbus A320 landed at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport, which has been the location of previous prisoner releases. In addition, the $6 billion in Iranian funds that were frozen in South Korea has been transferred to Qatar as part of the agreement. The deal, which was finalized earlier this month, stipulates that the released funds can only be utilized by Iran for humanitarian purposes. The US Treasury Department will closely monitor all transactions made using these funds.

Notably, the announcement of the prisoner swap precedes the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City, where President Biden and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi are expected to attend. Of the five Americans released, three have been identified: Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman who had been detained since 2015; Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American with dual citizenship in the UK, who had been detained since 2018; and Emad Shargi, an American citizen who also holds Iranian citizenship and had been detained since 2018. The identities of the remaining two individuals have not yet been revealed. As for the Iranians held in the US, it is known that they were mainly detained on suspicion of attempting to export materials to Iran. (Read more Iran stories.)