Families join Americans freed from Iran

Rezaian, 39, was freed Saturday from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

“Hearing about some of my fellow Marines supporting me really gave me the strength to put up with over four years of some very hard times”. Accompanying Rezaian on the flight were his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, and Iranian, and his mother, Mary Rezaian. A fourth stayed in Iran. A fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, who had been detained in Iran for roughly 40 days, was released separately.

Relatives met with Mr Hekmati for about 15 minutes, along with Congressman Dan Kildee of MI, according to a family statement. He and his family deny any wrongdoing, and say his imprisonment included physical and mental torture and long periods of solitary confinement in a tiny cell.

“These guys have been working day in and day out flying arms to Assad regime”, said Ottolenghi.

Rezaian also talked about some of the conditions of his detention, which Baron and Jehl said they could discuss only partially.

“Why did Iran prisoner swap not include my father?” said Sarah Moriarty. Kerry and McGurk joined up in Vienna, Austria, during other negotiations to talk to Zarif about the prisoner deal. It was only in the final hours of his incarceration that Rezaian said he was transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence, a body more closely allied with President Hassan Rouhani.

The Americans were freed as the United States and European Union lifted economic sanctions against Iran as part of last year’s nuclear deal. The plane was delayed for hours, and US officials were privately concerned that the deal had gone bad. The only thing he said was, “I was interrogated about them,”‘ Ali Rezaian told CNN.

In exchange, Washington granted clemency to seven Iranians.

He added that he didn’t really believe what was happening until he was out of Iranian airspace.

Amir Hekmati, center, speaking Tuesday in Germany with Congressman Dan Kildee, left, and Hekmati’s brother-in-law Ramy Kurdi. “They have been incredible”.

Rep. Jared Huffman, from California, expressed thanks to the U.S. State Department for negotiating the men’s release.

In Iraq, there are Iranian has ties with Shiite militias, which could have had a hand in the recent abduction of three Iraqi American contractors in Baghdad.

McGurk, in his rare interview providing an inside look at sensitive negotiations, details a divided Iran and an arduous process for the U.S.to navigate the maze of gatekeepers in the Iranian government to bring the Americans home. Last fall, Iran announced two missile tests.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said that 28 Iranians “were freed or were relieved of judicial restrictions” under the agreement.

His wife, Naghmeh, told the Idaho Statesman newspaper Monday that she will not be traveling to Germany and instead will meet him when he flies back to the U.S.

Hekmati, who spent more than four years in a prison in Iran, said the news of his release came as a surprise.

The family of Mr Saeed Abedini was expected to arrive later.

“Physically, at least”, he added. “Now, four and a half years later, he’s finally coming home”.

“To actually meet him and see what sort of gentle and kind person he is”, Kildee said, “I just told him how proud I was of him, that he endured this ordeal with incredible dignity”.

When asked how he feels now, Hekmati said: “It feels great”. Still, snippets of information had made it back to him, among them that his Christmas greetings conveyed via his mother from prison had “made the rounds and reached everybody, which is what I intended”.

“There’s a real competition within Tehran, which is ongoing now, the country is undergoing some serious changes and having a debate with itself about its own future, so that’s playing out right now”, McGurk said. But even then, the odds against the Post reporter seemed high. “Their families have been through hell”, he said.

But the Iranian government says they don’t know where he is and that they are prepared to help in his search. He was sentenced to an undisclosed prison term after a closed door trial in which he apparently was given little opportunity to offer a defense.