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Biden struck a deal with Iran to unfreeze $6 billion in assets and several Iranian nationals jailed for violating US sanctions in return for five Americans held for the dubious charge of espionage. New York Times and Reuters confirmed the deal. Three of the five Americans are Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi, and Morad Tahbaz. The Biden administration didn’t release the names of the other two.
Biden paying people off
The Iranian mission to the United Nations let people know this was being released. “Iran’s frozen funds in South Korea will be unblocked and transferred to Qatar.” The two other prisoners were supposedly a scientist and a businessman. One was arrested in March. The March arrest stalled the deal til Iran was willing to release that person as well.
The best known of the three is Siamak Namazi who was arrested October 2015 while visiting family in Tehran. Namazi supported the Iranian regime and advocated closer US – Iran relations. He may have been a victim of a power struggle.
Biden isn’t strong enough
It’s generational too. Namazi’s elderly father was also held for seven years but released Oct. 2022 due to health conditions. He was convicted of “collaborating with a hostile power,” that being the US after a 2016 “trial”.
While imprisoned, Namazi wrote a New York Times Op-Ed piece July 2022 entitled, “I’m An American, Why Have I Been Left to Rot as a Hostage of Iran?” He thought he should do this because “the Biden administration’s approach to rescuing Americans in distress in Iran has failed spectacularly so far. The ugly reality is that Iran will free its captives only if offered sufficient incentives.”
Namazi nailed it
Iran did indeed receive a huge payoff to release captives. There was a method to Biden’s madness. The current agreement is similar to one done earlier but Biden dragged his feet. He wanted to use the frozen Iranian assets as leverage for nuclear deal talks.
Tahbaz was jerked around. He’s a British-American conservationist with Iranian roots that was arrested in 2018 when there was a crackdown on conservation activists. He was sentenced to ten years, released for a short time on house arrest then was thrown right back in jail again. His daughter Tara said her dad had prostate cancer and contracted COVID three times while there. She wrote, “I think being told since Biden has taken office that our loved ones are a priority, and then seeing no action — it is hard to hold hope.”
