{"id":236049,"date":"2023-09-19T11:07:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T11:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=236049"},"modified":"2023-09-19T11:07:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T11:07:59","slug":"five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Americans freed by Iran in prisoner swap"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Save articles for later<\/h3>\n<p>Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n<h3>Key points<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Qatari plane brings five US citizens, two relatives to Doha.<\/li>\n<li>Five Iranians in US were freed, three will not return to Iran.<\/li>\n<li>The deal involved moving Iran\u2019s $US6 billion to Qatar from South Korea.<\/li>\n<li>US Secretary of State Antony Blinken leaves door to nuclear diplomacy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Doha\/New York: <\/strong>A US-bound plane carrying five Americans freed by Iran left Doha on Monday as part of a prisoner swap for five Iranians held in the United States and the transfer of $US6 billion in Iranian funds, marking a rare deal between the long-time antagonists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home,\u201d US President Joe Biden said in a statement shortly before the US detainees descended the stairs of a Qatari jet in Doha to be embraced by US diplomats.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.245%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/5ddd43fe24a2d0192273fbf147634b5301e45ae3\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\"><\/p>\n<p><span>From left, Emad Sharghi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi, former prisoners in Iran, walk out of a Qatar Airways flight in Qatar.<\/span><cite class=\"ojLwA\"><span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n<p>The White House confirmed a plane carrying the five, along with two US family members who left Tehran with them earlier, was en route to the United States, where they were to be offered medical treatment by the US military as they adjust to freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, Iran\u2019s state-owned Press TV said the five Iranians held by the United States and charged with committing crimes had been freed, an apparent reference to their being granted clemency, and that two of them had landed in Tehran.<\/p>\n<p>The other three are not expected to return to Iran.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was purely a humanitarian action,\u201d Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said after arriving in New York for the annual UN General Assembly. \u201cIt can certainly be a step based upon which in the future other humanitarian actions can be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.236%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/59a658afac9a4345234eb37da9318d7f2fdb6355\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\"><\/p>\n<p><span>Emad Sharghi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi, former prisoners in Iran, walk out of a Qatar Airways flight that brought them out of Tehran and to Doha.<\/span><cite class=\"ojLwA\"><span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n<p>It was unclear whether the exchange might bring progress on the many issues that divide the two nations, including Iran\u2019s nuclear program, its support for regional Shiite militias, the presence of US troops in the Gulf and US sanctions on Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Relations between the United States and Iran, adversaries for more than 40 years, have been especially bitter since former US president Donald Trump in 2018 reneged on a deal to curb Iran\u2019s nuclear program and reimposed US sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>Washington suspects the program may aim to develop nuclear weapons &#8211; an ambition Tehran denies &#8211; that could threaten Israel or US Gulf Arab allies.<\/p>\n<p>US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left the door open to diplomacy on the nuclear file, which he described as \u201cperhaps the number one issue of concern,\u201d but suggested nothing was imminent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this moment, we\u2019re not engaged on that, but we\u2019ll see in the future if there are opportunities,\u201d he told reporters in New York.<\/p>\n<p>US analysts voiced scepticism that progress was likely soon on the nuclear or other issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe prisoner swap does likely pave the way for additional diplomacy around the nuclear program this fall, although the prospect for actually reaching a deal is very remote,\u201d said Henry Rome of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemoving an irritant is different from adding a salve,\u201d said Jon Alterman of the Centre of Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n<p>In a sign Biden, a Democrat, wishes to appear tough on Iran and perhaps blunt Republican criticism, he announced fresh US sanctions on Iran\u2019s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and its intelligence ministry for \u201cinvolvement in wrongful detentions\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will continue to impose costs on Iran for their provocative actions in the region,\u201d he said in the statement, in which he thanked the governments of Qatar, Oman, Switzerland and South Korea for their assistance in securing the releases.<\/p>\n<p>Qatar mediated indirect US-Iran talks on the detainees while Switzerland, which represents US interests in Tehran because the United States and Iran do not diplomatic relations, helped with the transfer of funds from South Korea to Qatar.<\/p>\n<p>A plane sent by Qatar flew the five US citizens and two of their relatives out of Tehran after both sides got confirmation the $US6 billion was transferred from South Korea to Qatari accounts, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>A prominent Republican, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, said the transfer of the $US6 billion would likely lead to more detentions of US citizens by Iran.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very concerned that this $US6 billion hostage deal incentivises future hostage-taking,\u201d McCaul said in an emailed statement. \u201cThere is no question this deal will free up funds for Iran\u2019s malign activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Biden aides argue the money belongs to Iran and is being transferred from restricted South Korean accounts to restricted Qatari accounts, where it can only be spent on food, medicine and other humanitarian items with US oversight.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, two of the five Iranians landed in Qatar, a US official said. Three have opted not to return to Iran.<\/p>\n<p>One of the five freed Americans had been held for about eight years on charges Washington rejected as baseless.<\/p>\n<p>The deal, after months of talks in Qatar, removes a major irritant between the US, which brands Tehran a sponsor of terrorism, and Iran, which calls Washington the \u201cGreat Satan\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The US dual citizens released include Siamak Namazi, 51, and Emad Sharqi, 59, both businessmen, and Morad Tahbaz, 67, an environmentalist who also holds British nationality.<\/p>\n<p>The identities of the fourth and fifth US citizens were not disclosed at their request given their desire for privacy.<\/p>\n<p>Iranian officials have named the five Iranians released by the US as Mehrdad Moin-Ansari, Kambiz Attar-Kashani, Reza Sarhangpour-Kafrani, Amin Hassanzadeh and Kaveh Afrasiabi.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reuters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Get a note directly from our foreign <\/i><\/b><b><i>correspondents <\/i><\/b><b><i>on what\u2019s making headlines around the world. <\/i><\/b><b><i>Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here<\/i><\/b><b><i>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<h2>Most Viewed in World<\/h2>\n<h3>From our partners<\/h3>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/world\/middle-east\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap-20230919-p5e5s6.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Key points Qatari plane brings five US citizens, two relatives to Doha. Five&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Five Americans freed by Iran in prisoner swap - lovemainstream.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Americans freed by Iran in prisoner swap - lovemainstream.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Key points Qatari plane brings five US citizens, two relatives to Doha. Five&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"lovemainstream.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-19T11:07:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Five-Americans-freed-by-Iran-in-prisoner-swap.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/\",\"name\":\"Five Americans freed by Iran in prisoner swap - lovemainstream.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-19T11:07:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-19T11:07:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/abc9aeefdadf991087d66599cfc40c8d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"World News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/category\/world-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Five Americans freed by Iran in prisoner swap\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/\",\"name\":\"lovemainstream.com\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/abc9aeefdadf991087d66599cfc40c8d\",\"name\":\"mediabest\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38da2a5c83e5b947af91e83c833be9d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38da2a5c83e5b947af91e83c833be9d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"mediabest\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Five Americans freed by Iran in prisoner swap - lovemainstream.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Five Americans freed by Iran in prisoner swap - lovemainstream.com","og_description":"Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Key points Qatari plane brings five US citizens, two relatives to Doha. Five&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/","og_site_name":"lovemainstream.com","article_published_time":"2023-09-19T11:07:59+00:00","author":"mediabest","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Five-Americans-freed-by-Iran-in-prisoner-swap.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"mediabest","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/","url":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/","name":"Five Americans freed by Iran in prisoner swap - lovemainstream.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-09-19T11:07:59+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-19T11:07:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/abc9aeefdadf991087d66599cfc40c8d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/five-americans-freed-by-iran-in-prisoner-swap\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"World News","item":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/category\/world-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Five Americans freed by Iran in prisoner swap"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/","name":"lovemainstream.com","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/abc9aeefdadf991087d66599cfc40c8d","name":"mediabest","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38da2a5c83e5b947af91e83c833be9d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38da2a5c83e5b947af91e83c833be9d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"mediabest"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236050,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236049\/revisions\/236050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}