Flint man, long held in Iran, reunited with family

Post Executive Editor Martin Baron and Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl said Rezaian “looked good” during their two-hour meeting in a conference room at the Landstuhl medical center near the Ramstein Air Base, according to the Post.

Ali Rezaian, left, the brother of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, rallies with supporters to deliver a petition of 500,000 signatures to Iran’s United Nations mission asking for the release of his brother from prison, December 3, 2015, in NY. Former Marine Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini are also in Germany; they were also released in the prisoner swap deal that occurred on Saturday.

A senior Iranian official said four Americans freed under a prisoner swap deal were still in Iran and denied earlier reports suggesting they had already left the country.

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

Brett McGurk, a U.S. State Department official, tweeted a photo of Rezaian as he arrived on the tarmac in Geneva.

Kildee said Hekmati “asked me to say how proud he is to be an American who stood with these other Americans who have gone through this ordeal, and [to] have so much support from this administration, from Congress, from people back home”. We told him we’ve been talking about him for 545 days.

Relatives and supporters of Rezaian, The Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent, and Hekmati, a Marine veteran, saw them for the first time and released photographs of happy reunions.

None of the men are reported to be suffering any acute medical conditions, the lawmakers told reporters.

The prisoner exchange punctuated a Cold War-esque day of drama as the Iranian nuclear deal with the West kicked in and economic sanctions lifted. The deal is about stopping Iran from building a nuclear weapon. An American student who was freed separately, Matthew Trevithick, 30, flew out Saturday on his own.

“Today, we’re united in welcoming home sons and husbands and brothers who, in lonely prison cells, have endured an absolute nightmare”, Mr. Obama said.

The people released by the US were accused of trying to steer around sanctions restricting trade with Iran.

“I didn’t want to let my fellow Marines down and the reputation of the Marine Corps”, explained Hekmati, one of five Iranian-held Americans released over the weekend.

As part of the landmark deal, the USA relieved sanctions on Iran in return for its progress in pulling back its nuclear program. After the nuclear deal was completed, the discussions between our governments accelerated.

But then once they arrived, Jason Rezaian’s family was separated from the Swiss.

The prisoner swap came after more than a year of secret negotiations, officials said. He said it shows a “weakness” in Washington and that if he were elected president, Iran would not dare detain Americans or face dire consequences.

Among American politicians, Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan gave cautious praise to the release of the prisoners, particularly Abedini, but said they never should have been held in the first place.

Khosrow Afghahi, Tooraj Faridi, Bahram Mechanic and Nima Golestaneh were pardoned.