Americans freed by Iran over the weekend reunited with their families Monday at a US military base in Germany, but relatives of another hostage expressed serious disappointment he had not been release
Americans freed by Iran over the weekend reunited with their families Monday at a US military base in Germany, but relatives of another hostage expressed serious disappointment he had not been released.
Tehran released four Ira-nian-American dual natio-nals, some of whom had been held for years, in a prisoner swap, while a fifth American was freed separately. In exchange, Washi-ngton granted clemency to seven Iranians. And it wit-hdrew international arrest notices for 14 Iranians.
The prisoner swap came as the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed Iran had put a nuclear bomb beyond its immediate reach and the US and EU lifted their most draconian economic sanctions. US diplomats insisted, to widespread scepticism, that the two breakthroughs were entirely separate.
On Monday, three of the freed Americans were receiving medical checkups at US military facilities in Landstuhl, Germany. Relatives and supporters of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and Marine veteran Amir Hekmati saw them for the first time since being released and shared group photographs. The family of Saeed Abedini was expected to arrive later. The fourth freed Iranian-American, named as Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, apparently chose to remain in Iran. Very little is publicly known about him.
But amid all the rejoicing and teary-eyed reunions, one family was left deeply disappointed.
“Why did Iran prisoner swap not include my father ” asked Sarah Moriarty, daughter of ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson, who has been missing for nine years.
Speaking on behalf of her “crushed and outraged” family, Ms Moriarty denounced “the calculated risk that was taken to decide that five hostages were enough for this deal.”
“A deadline to wrap up everything about our current relations with Iran in a pretty bow on January 16... Meant to our family that our government was satisfied with leaving my father behind. Again,” Ms Moriarty added.
Mr Levinson (67) disappeared in mysterious circumstances in March 2007 during a visit to the Iranian island of Kish. He was reportedly investigating cigarette counterfeiting in the region.
