” Welcome home “. It was with this message from Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, that the five Americans released by Iran were welcomed to the United States on Tuesday. The five ex-detainees landed at dawn on a military base near Washington, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“It really feels good to be able to say that our fellow citizens are now free,” the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken had told the press the day before, once again justifying the agreement with Tehran which is very criticized in the United States. by the Republican opposition. Joe Biden had an “emotional” conversation with the families of these Americans, the White House also said.
Espionage accusations
The former American prisoners, including one detained for eight years, and two members of their family had left Tehran Monday morning aboard a Qatari flight for Doha where they made a stopover before taking off again, this time aboard an American plane, for the United States. Among them is businessman Siamak Namazi, arrested in 2015 and sentenced to ten years in prison in 2016 for espionage.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomed the release of the prisoners, one of whom, Morad Tahbaz, also has British nationality. A third ex-prisoner, Emad Sharqi, is an investor who was sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage. The other two did not wish to be identified.
Among the five Iranians to be released by the United States are Reza Sarhangpour and Kambiz Attar Kashani, accused of having “diverted American sanctions” against Iran.