Prisoner Swap: Freed US Citizens Leave Iran

President Barack Obama on Sunday celebrated the release of Americans held prisoner in Iran and said Tehran had agreed to help in efforts to find Jewish American Robert Levinson, who went missing in the Islamic Republic almost a decade ago.

USA officials announced Saturday that a fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, was recently freed but that his release was unrelated to the swap.

Obama administration officials told a conference call Saturday that they remain committed to finding Levinson and ensuring his return, the senior official added on on condition of anonymity.

Taking to Twitter, Secretary of State John Kerry said “For over a year, we have raised the cases of American citizens unjustly detained in #Iran at every opportunity”. “We have now been officially told that he is on a plane leaving the country”, the family said in a statement.

The three were released from Iranian custody as part of a prisoner swap with Iran that also saw US authorities pardon or drop charges against seven Iranian nationals accused of violating USA sanctions against commercial activity with Iran.

Trevithick’s parents said he was freed after 40 days at a prison in Tehran.

The news of the release of Washington Post reporter and Bay Area native Jason Rezaian, who spent the last 18 months in an Iranian prison, is being greeted with an overwhelming sense of relief in the North Bay.

The Washington Post confirmed its journalist Jason Rezaian was among those who “safely left the country” alongside American pastor Saeed Abedini.

Diplomats from the United States and Iran worked for more than a year in negotiating the complex prisoner swap, officials said.

Iranian state television had said earlier that Khosravi-Roodsari was one of the four who flew out on a “special Swiss plane”.

Iranian media lists those freed as: Nader Modanlou, Bahram Mechanic, Khosrow Afqahi, Arash Ghahreman, Touraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh and Ali Sabounchi. His wife, who had also been detained early on in that ordeal and was – initially had to stay in Iran – we’re told now that she’s allowed to leave.

“We are relieved that this 545-day nightmare for Jason and his family is finally over, “Washington Post publisher Frederick J. Ryan Jr. said in a statement”.

They were released in exchange for clemency for seven Iranians indicted or imprisoned in the United States for sanctions violations, the officials confirmed.

The deal comes after more than a year of secret negotiations, the officials said.

The proposed budget predicts an exchange rate of $1 USA dollar to 29,970 Iranian rials. But a senior US official later said he was not traveling with the other released prisoners.

Cruz later blamed the president’s foreign policy for the brief detention of U.S. Navy crew members by Iran last week, saying that Obama has weakened perceptions of American strength overseas. He said the start of his presidency would be like that of Ronald Reagan in 1981, when Iran released hostages taken at the American embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Saboonchi had been convicted of unlawfully exporting goods to Iran in violation of global sanctions and was serving a 2-year sentence. Iranian officials have denied knowing his whereabouts. With that done, major sanctions limiting Iran’s access to worldwide banks and commerce are now lifted.

“I want to start by giving thanks… but at the same time we’ve got to shake our heads at how it happened”, Cruz said.