2023-09-20 03:18:49
Five US citizens released as part of a prisoner swap with Iran arrived in the US on Tuesday. The five men landed in a private plane at Fort Belvoir military airfield south of Washington. There they were greeted and hugged by relieved relatives who waved US flags and posed for a group photo with the arrivals.
“Welcome home,” wrote White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on the online service X, formerly Twitter.
The freed people, one of whom had been imprisoned for eight years, came from the Gulf state of Qatar, where the exchange took place. The Gulf state acted as a mediator between Washington and Tehran – the two countries have not had diplomatic relations with each other for many years.
Two Iranians from the USA were also brought to the Gulf state for the exchange. South Korea, which is allied with the USA, had previously released frozen Iranian assets worth six billion dollars (around 5.6 billion euros) – a condition of Tehran for the exchange.
Tehran and Washington agreed on the prisoner exchange in August. The US agreed to release five Iranians. In return, Tehran announced the release of five US citizens held in Iran. The five US citizens have Iranian roots and have both Iranian and US citizenship. However, Iran does not recognize dual citizenship.
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