US Pardons Seven Iranians in Exchange for Four Prisoners

Three of the four USA citizens freed by Iran in a prisoner swap arrived in Germany on Sunday, a U.S. official said, where they were expected at an American military base.

An administration official said, without elaborating, that detained USA citizens had been released and those who wished to depart Iran had left.

Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, pastor Saeed Abedini, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, and Hekmati were freed from custody in Iran and were flown to Switzerland Sunday morning.

Earlier today, Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) watched as President Obama spoke about the prisoner swap that exchanged five Americans held in Iranian prisons for seven Iranians held in US jails. “When Americans are freed and returned to their families, that’s something we can all celebrate”.

According to USA media, the base in question would be the U.S. base at Ramstein, where they are to undergo medical examinations. Again, the White House will stress that the folks, the Iranians who were being released, were not violent criminals or terrorists but were folks who had been accused and in some cases convicted of sanctions relations.

Kerry said the nuclear agreement provided the key impetus. “It just doesn’t feel real until we see him, but I know it’s real”.

USA and Iranian officials hashed out the prisoner exchange over 11 or 12 meetings over a process that took a little longer than a year, sprouting from the even longer set of talks that led to last July’s landmark nuclear accord.

“It’s up to him when he wants to come home”, Kildee told MSNBC.

The U.S. Air Force plane and an Iranian government passenger aircraft both arrived in Geneva on Saturday evening.

“As many of you know, Amir’s father is very ill and soon he will embrace his son once more”, the family statement said.

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump criticized the terms of the prisoner deal, which involved Iran releasing four prisoners, the USA pardoning seven Iranians charged with sanctions violations and the US dropping extradition requests for 14 more Iranians.

Similarly, fellow Republican candidate Mike Huckabee tweeted “Praise God!” for the release of Abedini before tweeting, “It’s embarrassing John Kerry & Obama negotiate with Iran as innocent Americans still remain locked-up in prison”. We have now been officially told that he is on a plane leaving the country.

The Iran nuclear deal was the product of years of careful negotiations between Tehran and the P5+1 – the permanent UN Security Council members and the European Union.

The exchange did not cover Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman who advocated better ties between Iran and the USA and who reportedly was arrested in October, or former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007 on an unauthorized Central Intelligence Agency mission.

“We do believe we should test whether or not there can be additional cooperation, or at least constructive dialogue”, a senior U.S. administration official told reporters.

Zarif, he said, indicated that if they got the two tasks done, “There are ways to try to translate this and hopefully be constructive in other things”.

The fifth American, Matthew Trevithick, who went to Iran in September to study Farsi at a language centre affiliated with Tehran University, was seen in photographs in the Boston Globe returning to family in MA on Sunday.