Washington Post delighted at release of reporter

American officials said the United States offered clemency to the seven – six of whom are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens – who had been convicted or were awaiting trial. The Iranians originally sought 19 people as part of the exchange; USA officials whittled down the number to seven. Faratel designs and builds uninterruptible power supplies for several Iranian government agencies, including the Iranian Ministry of Defense, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the Iranian Centrifuge Technology Company, according to the charges.

“We couldn’t be happier to hear the news that Jason Rezaian has been released from Evin Prison”, Washington Post spokeswoman Kris Coriatti said in a statement.

Under the front-page headline “Nuclear Burial”, the hard-line Iranian daily Vatan-e-Emrooz said loss of the reactor was “hurting national pride”.

“Praise God that Christian pastor Saeed Abedini has been freed from his eight-year prison sentence for serving the Lord, spreading the Gospel and planting house churches across Iran”, said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who questioned why it took the Obama administration so long to secure his release. Matthew Trevithnick, the student who had been detained a few months ago, was released independently and was already was on his way home.

Jason Rezaian: aged 39, Tehran correspondent for the Washington Post. Salehi was arrested at the same time as her husband, and spent six weeks in jail.

Saturday afternoon, Kerry told reporters in Vienna that the prisoner swap was “accelerated” by the nuclear agreement. “It took nearly a year and naturally the government of Switzerland as a facilitating country played a positive role in these negotiations”.

Then, on Tuesday, shortly before President Barack Obama was to deliver his final State of the Union address, Iran detained the USA sailors and their boats.

Citing “significant foreign policy interests” of the United States, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts, New York, California, and Texas asked federal judges on early Saturday morning to dismiss charges against the four Iranians.

United States officials characterised the move as a humanitarian gesture, but some experts said the leniency toward Iranians accused of sanctions violations could set a bad precedent.

The Washington Post released a statement about Rezaian’s release, saying the paper “couldn’t be happier” and will release more information once they confirm Rezaian is safely out of the country.

The journalism advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement on Saturday, “We are thrilled to see Jason finally free, but he should have never been imprisoned in the first place”.

Hekmati’s family said: “We thank everyone for your thoughts during this time“. But, they cautioned, “There are still many unknowns”.

Hekmati was born in Arizona and raised in MI.

The Boise man was detained for compromising national security, presumably because of Christian proselytizing, in September 2012. Rezaian was convicted in November after a closed trial, and in all served 18 months in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. “Iran benefits from this deal by showing all those in its evasion network that if they get caught, they will be rescued”.

Hekmati was arrested by Iranian authorities in 2011, while traveling to visit his ailing grandmother, and was accused of espionage, according to a news release from Rep. Matt Salmon. She was released on bail on October 6.

The inclusion of Nosratollah Khosravi on the list came as a surprise and there were no biographical details about him immediately available.

Mr Levinson’s case was aggressively pursued, USA officials say, and Iran has committed to continue cooperating in trying to determine his whereabouts.

Iran’s refusal to release American citizens was a major sticking point for GOP presidential hopefuls, but even the news of their release didn’t please everyone. They were named as Nader Modanlou, Bahram Mechanic, Khosrow Afqahi, Arash Ghahreman, Touraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh and Ali Sabounchi.

They were released in less than 24 hours after Kerry intervened with Zarif in multiple telephone calls that administration officials hailed as a channel of communication opened because of the nuclear negotiations.

The landmark Iran nuclear agreement, struck after decades of hostility, defused the likelihood of USA or Israeli military action against Iran, something Zarif alluded to.