2023-09-19 05:26:56
2023-09-19 13:26 United News Network 24 hours around the corner. The person on the second left wearing glasses is Siamak Namazi, and the person on the right wearing a mask is Morad Tahbaz…
【2023. 9. 19 United States/Iran】
Biden’s Ridiculous Compromise or Win-Win Diplomacy?US-Iraq prisoner exchange: US$5.9 billion in exchange for 5 US citizens
“Five Americans returned home from Iran, and Iran received a huge sum of US$5.9 billion.” After long discussions, the United States and Iran completed the prisoner exchange on September 18. Iran released the five American citizens it had imprisoned. The United States paid In addition to the release of five Iranian prisoners, the exchange conditions also include the release of $5.9 billion in frozen Iranian funds. The five freed American citizens took a flight back to the United States on the 18th. Among the five released Iranians, two have arrived in Tehran, and the other three are not expected to return to the country. Iranian President Raisi called the prisoner exchange a “humanitarian action.” U.S. President Biden also said that “innocent Americans were able to return home.” Iran took back 5.9 billion U.S. dollars, and the United States also successfully welcomed its citizens back home. However, it seems that Although it appears to be a win-win agreement, the Republican Party has expressed dissatisfaction with the Biden administration, questioning that the Biden administration is “helping to boost the Iranian economy” at a time when Iran’s threats to the United States and its Middle East allies have intensified.
The US-Iran prisoner exchange agreement was mediated by Qatar starting in February 2022. After several months of negotiations, the United States and Iran finally reached a prisoner exchange agreement. On September 18, both sides released five prisoners; in addition, the United States It also unfroze $5.9 billion in Iranian funds that were originally frozen by sanctions – this money was oil payments that South Korea, a third country, was supposed to pay to Iran in 2019, before the United States imposed sanctions on such Iranian oil transactions.
Iran has continued to develop weapons and nuclear programs in recent years, and tensions between the United States and Iran are high. At this time, the U.S. government has agreed to release Iran’s huge amount of frozen money, which will undoubtedly arouse doubts. Regarding this money, the U.S. authorities stated that it will be stored in The designated account in Qatar Bank can only be used for humanitarian purposes such as purchasing medicines and food.
The five U.S. citizens released from Iran were transferred from Evin Prison (the main place of imprisonment for political prisoners in Iran) in mid-August to house arrest in Tehran, the capital of Iran, and were subsequently placed under house arrest on September 18. He was released by the Iranian authorities and took a flight to Doha, the capital of Qatar, and then transferred back to the United States from Doha.
獲釋的Siamak Namazi、Morad Tahbaz、Emad Sharg…
When the five people arrived in Doha, US President Biden issued a statement saying:
“Today, five innocent Americans imprisoned in Iran finally come home.”
Biden said that the five U.S. citizens have experienced “years of pain and uncertainty” and called on Americans to avoid traveling to Iran. He also announced sanctions against former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. New sanctions imposed for involvement in the “wrongful detention” of US citizens.
Among the five people released by Iran, the identities of two have not been announced, while the three people whose information has been released by the U.S. government are:
Morad Tahbaz, a 67-year-old businessman who holds dual nationality of the United States and the United Kingdom, was arrested along with eight other local Iranian environmentalists in 2018 during the Iranian government’s crackdown on environmentalists; Tahbaz was involved in the Persian The actions of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, which uses cameras to track endangered Asiatic cheetahs, have been accused by the Iranian government of “using environmental programs to conceal the collection of confidential information.” Tabaz and his colleagues deny the accusations, while Amnesty International points to evidence that Tabaz and others were tortured to extract confessions.
Tabaz was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 and was imprisoned in Evin Prison. In 2021, United Nations human rights experts pointed out that his health had deteriorated in prison but he was unable to receive appropriate medical treatment.
There is also 57-year-old Siamak Namazi. Namazi has dual nationality of the United States and Iran. He once worked for Crescent Petroleum in Dubai. He was arrested by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in October 2015. He has been imprisoned for nearly eight years. His father was arrested in February 2016 after being allowed to visit the prison by Iranian officials. Both were sentenced to 10 years in prison by Iran’s Revolutionary Court for “collaborating with hostile countries.” In January 2023, Namazi went on a week-long hunger strike to protest the failure of the United States to free him and other dual nationals.
The third released American citizen whose identity is known is Emad Shargi, who also has dual citizenship of Iran and the United States. Shargi is an Iranian-American businessman, 58 years old. He immigrated to Iran from the United States with his wife in 2017. In April 2018, he was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards while working for the Iranian venture capital fund Sarava. The espionage charges were later dismissed by the court in December. However, in November 2020, he was summoned again by the Revolutionary Court. The court informed Shaji that he was being tried in absentia. , was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Iranian President Raisi (left).Photo/AFP
After the United States and Iran complete the prisoner exchange on September 18, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is expected to attend the United Nations General Assembly opening on the 19th. He will call the prisoner exchange “a step toward humanitarian action between us and the United States.” ”, saying that this move will help both parties build trust – however, the current situation between the United States and Iran is a highly tense confrontation. The two sides are involved in a dispute over the Iranian government’s development of a nuclear program, and during the Ukraine-Russia war, Iran was directly directed by the White House. It refers to secretly aiding Russia and providing hundreds of Russian drones to attack Ukraine.
The five Iranian prisoners released by the United States are Mehrdad Moein Ansari, who was accused of trying to obtain nuclear weapons and missile parts, Kambiz Attar Kashani, who was accused of conspiring to illegally export US goods and technology to Iran, and illegally exporting US goods and technology to Iran. Reza Sarhangpour-Kafrani, who exported laboratory equipment, Amin Hassanzadeh, who stole sensitive aviation technical data from the University of Michigan, and so-called neutral experts who were hired to carry out political propaganda for the Iranian government Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiab, lobbyist.
Mehran Kamrava, a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, commented on the prisoner exchange to the BBC, pointing out that the matter can be said to be a “win-win”. He said:
“For Biden, he brought Americans home on the eve of the election; for Iran, the Iranians were released from American prisons, but the real huge victory was the nearly $6 billion in funding.” Photo/AFP
Although the U.S. authorities insist that the use of 5.9 billion funds will be strictly controlled, Leahy said: “This money belongs to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we will decide to spend it where we need it.”
“Associated Press” analysis, Leahy’s statement also shows that the focus of Iran’s prisoner exchange is indeed for funds. On the one hand, the prison terms of Iranian prisoners released from the United States are much lower than those released by Iran. American prisoners; on the other hand, the United Nations has warned in the past that Iran has begun to use a model of “arbitrarily depriving dual nationals of their freedom” to negotiate with Western countries to demand the release of Iran’s frozen overseas assets.
The Biden administration’s decision to exchange prisoners has also aroused fierce criticism from Republicans in the United States. Republicans believe that at a time when Iran’s threat to the Middle East is intensifying, the U.S. authorities are still unfreezing funds to boost Iran’s economy; Republicans in the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul accused Biden of transferring funds to “the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism,” and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell also criticized Biden for “incentivizing Iran’s bad behavior.” ” As for former President Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for the 2024 U.S. President, he called the prisoner exchange agreement an “absolutely ridiculous deal.”
The history of prisoner exchanges between the United States and Iran in the past can be traced back to the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when U.S. embassy personnel became hostages of the Iranian government and later returned to the United States through exchanges; the most recent major exchange between the United States and Iran was in 2016 , Iran reached a deal with world powers to ease sanctions in order to limit its nuclear program.
The entrance to the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, which has been turned into an anti-American museum.Photo/Associated Press Past 24 hours United States Middle East and North Africa
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