Idaho pastor among Americans being released from Iran

Rezaian’s release, and that of fellow Americans Amir Hekmati, Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, is unlikely to alter that policy or Iran’s transgressions of worldwide law.

The wife of Saeed Abedini, an American pastor held as a prisoner in Iran, confirmed on Saturday that he had been released.

A White House source told CBN News in return for the release, the United States will either pardon or drop charges against at least six Iranians. Doug Jehl, the Post’s foreign editor, said last fall that it seemed like “Jason is not really a prisoner, he’s a bargaining chip being used by the Iranian government to extract some concessions from the U.S”.

In this Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011 video frame grab image made from the Iranian broadcaster IRIB TV, U.S. citizen Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, accused by Iran of spying for the Central Intelligence Agency, sits in Tehran’s revolutionary court, in Iran.

Abedini, an Iran native and convert to Christinanity, was arrested in 2012 and convicted the next year on charges of attempting to undermine the Iranian government. In September, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, raised the prospect of a prisoner swap.

It was reported on Saturday that the implementation of new sanctions over Iran’s ballistic missile tests had been delayed to avoid risking the prisoners’ release.

Madanloo, of Maryland, is serving an eight-year sentence for conspiring to illegally provide satellite services to Iran, according to the U.S. Justice Department. 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.

Since his arrest in July 2014, Rezaian had become the highest-profile dual Iranian-American citizen held in Tehran’s Evin Prison, particularly as the nuclear talks were unfolding.

A November 6, 2013, photo shows Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter, at the newspaper in Washington.

“He’s been incarcerated for nine months for a crime that he’s just accused of but did not commit”, said lawyer Joel Androphy.

Fellow presidential hopeful Ted Cruz praised the release of Abedini’s release but simultaneously criticized President Obama’s deal with Iran. He said Rezaian’s wife, Yeganeh Salehi, is on the same flight out of Iran.

A fifth American detained in Iran, a student, was also released in a move unrelated to the prisoner exchange, Iranian media reported.

Clinton also noted the continued mystery surrounding Bob Levinson, an American who disappeared in Iran in 2007 and whom the officials refused to speak of except to say they still seek his return.

Abedini has been held by Iranian authorities since 2012.

The U.S. officials described the released Iranians as convicts or suspects in sanctions violations – offenses that Iran’s government has never recognized as legitimate. But he said their release awaits the Americans’ departure from Iran.

“The truth is we are both human, and there is very dark moments and issues in our marriage and our family that came to light at a very breaking point where I was under a lot of stress and I shared with friends and it came out on media”, Naghmeh said.

The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) named the other three men as Nader Madanloo, Arash Ghahreman and Nima Golestaneh.