‘Glitch’ delayed departure of American prisoners from Iran

Iran freed imprisoned Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian as the US lifted some of its harshest sanctions against the country.

A senior administration official said of Trevithick, “We wanted him, obviously, to be a direct part of this, and made clear to Iranians that [his release] would be an appropriate humanitarian gesture”.

The Anti-Defamation League, which opposed the nuclear deal, said on Saturday that Tehran’s release of several Iranian-American prisoners this weekend was a positive step.

Three Americans boarded the plane for Germany – Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati of Flint, Mich., and pastor Saeed Abedini of Boise – but not Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari.

Rubio said that this is part of a pattern set by the Obama administration, citing the 2014 exchange of Cuban spies for a US aide worker in Cuba and the swap of Guantanamo Bay prisoners for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Huffman said the freed prisoners are expected to be transported to a USA military hospital in Germany for medical evaluation. Six of them hold dual Iranian and American citizenship, and the seventh is an Iranian. Hekmati says he went to Iran to visit family and spend time with his ailing grandmother.

Iranian media lists those freed as: Nader Modanlou, Bahram Mechanic, Khosrow Afqahi, Arash Ghahreman, Touraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh and Ali Sabounchi.

During almost a dozen meetings to discuss a possible prisoner swap, Kerry said he urged their release on humanitarian grounds although he anxious that the prisoner release could be complicated by Iranian politics. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, the official said efforts were underway to get the four together and on a plane out of Tehran.

“For a long time, this didn’t move because of the people they were asking for”, Kerry recalled. Missiles were not part of the nuclear agreement. It said Iran must be held to the commitments it agreed to under the nuclear accord and that its support for militant groups and arming of regional proxies must be confronted.

Hekmati’s family wrote, in a statement posted on Facebook, that they “remain in hopeful anticipation”.

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

“Yes, the plane has left”, A United States official told Reuters.

A prisoner swap was confirmed shortly before it was announced that Iran has met all measures spelled out in the landmark nuclear deal. It continues to hold at least one American, businessman Siamak Namazi; another, former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Levinson, remains missing.

“We are happy for the other families”, Levinson’s family said in a statement. Last year, he was indicted on charges he illegaly exported millions of dollars in USA technology to Iran.