2023-09-18 14:05:09
Five Americans were imprisoned in Iran for years. After long negotiations, they have now been released and have started their journey home via Qatar. In return, the United States released five Iranian prisoners.
Five Americans held in Iran have been released. They were on board a plane with two family members en route from Tehran to Qatar, a senior US government official said. Iranian state media reported that the plane had left Tehran.
In return, the US will pardon five Iranians who were convicted or charged with “non-violent crimes”. One of them is accused of industrial espionage. According to the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, only two of the five Iranians will return to Iran. Two want to stay in the USA at their own request. The fifth Iranian will leave for a third country.
Iran will also have access to around six billion US dollars from its own assets. The money was frozen in South Korea due to international sanctions.
The daughter of environmentalist Morad Tahbas demonstrated for his release with a photo of her father in her hands.
The prisoner exchange had been prepared for months. According to the White House, Oman and Qatar played a particularly important role in the negotiations. At the beginning of August, Iran released the now released Americans from custody and placed them under house arrest in a hotel in the capital Tehran.
One of the most well-known of them is businessman Siamak Namasi, who has both American and Iranian citizenship. He was imprisoned in 2015 and sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage. In 2018, environmentalist Morad Tahbas and businessman Emad Shargi were arrested. The identities of the other two Americans who have now been released have not yet been known.
Release of funds for humanitarian purposes
The US government has made it clear that the money to which Iran should now have access will be exchanged for euros in several tranches and transferred to Qatar. The money could only be used for humanitarian purposes, including medicine and food, it said. Such transactions are permitted under US sanctions against Iran.
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