US seeking release of fourth American held in Iran

Al-Monitor-July 21st,2023

WASHINGTON — A fourth US citizen has been detained in Iran, several sources confirmed to Al-Monitor on Friday, potentially complicating the Biden administration’s pursuit of a prisoner exchange with Tehran.

More than two years after the United States and Iran began indirect talks over a prisoner swap, Tehran is still holding three Iranian-Americans — Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz — on charges US officials say are baseless. Also held in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison is Shahab Dalili, a legal permanent US resident.

In late June, Middle East Eye reported that US officials had added a fourth name to the list of Americans they were seeking from Iran. Semafor also reported on the detention of a fourth American.

On Friday, five sources with knowledge of the situation told Al-Monitor that the United States was seeking the release of a fourth individual detained by Tehran.

Asked to confirm the reports, a spokesperson for the National Security Council referred Al-Monitor to national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“We have tried very hard to secure the release of the four unjustly detained Americans in Iran; we have done so since the day that President Biden took office,” Sullivan said.

Last month, Washington and Tehran appeared to be on the verge of an agreement that would bring home the three Americans in exchange for Iran gaining limited access to billions of dollars in assets frozen abroad. Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, whose country has helped facilitate the prisoner talks, told Al-Monitor in a June 14 interview that the two sides were “close” to a deal.

A State Department spokesperson urged Iran to release all wrongfully detained Americans “without delay,” describing their imprisonment as “outrageous.”

“We will not discuss the details of any efforts to secure the release of US citizens wrongfully detained by Iran, including any numbers of US citizens currently in Iran,” the spokesperson added. “Such discussions would be sensitive and highly consequential to those individuals and their families.”

A spokesperson for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations declined to comment.

In what rights groups say is a feature of Iran’s foreign policy dating back to the 1979 revolution, foreigners and dual citizens are routinely jailed as leverage in negotiations for frozen assets, sanctions relief and other concessions.

In late May, Belgium and Iran exchanged prisoners in an Omani-mediated deal. A week later, Tehran released three detainees from Denmark and Austria.