A plane carrying Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and two other Americans released by Iran left Tehran on Sunday and later landed in Germany after the implementation of a landmark agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.
Once the prisoner flight was well on its way, the Obama administration announced new sanctions related to participation in Iran’s ballistic missile program. The sanctions, which applied to 11 persons and companies, were issued under U.S. restrictions that remain in place despite the lifting Saturday of international sanctions tied to Iran’s nuclear program.
The plane landed in Geneva for a brief stopover before the Americans were flown to Germany for medical checkups at a U.S. military hospital. They landed at Ramstein Air Base shortly before 2 p.m. EST and were to be taken to the U.S. military’s nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
While the Swiss plane carrying the three Americans was airborne, President Barack Obama hailed the implementation of the nuclear agreement and the prisoner deal with Iran that led to the release of the detained U.S. citizens. In televised remarks Sunday morning, he said that although “profound differences” remain between Washington and Tehran, the Iranian people now have a chance to end their isolation and “begin building new ties with the world.”
In Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani told the Iranian parliament that the end of nuclear-related sanctions marks a “turning point” for the country. He later proclaimed in a news conference that financial institutions in Iran would be able to re-engage “the banks of the world for financial and monetary purposes.”
U.S. and European officials lifted the harshest economic sanctions against Tehran after the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog certified that the Islamic republic had fully complied with promises to curtail key parts of its nuclear program. Hours before diplomats in Vienna heralded the official activation of the nuclear deal, Iran confirmed the release of Rezaian and the other American detainees, set free in exchange for U.S. clemency offered to seven Iranians charged or imprisoned for sanctions violations and the dismissal of outstanding charges against 14 Iranians outside the United States.
Rezaian and two other released Americans were flown out of Tehran on Sunday, after a delay. One of the total of four Americans who were freed in the prisoner deal, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, did not fly out with the others, U.S. officials said.
“We can confirm that our detained U.S. citizens have been released and that those who wished to depart Iran have left,” a senior administration official said. “We have no further information to share at this time and would ask that everyone respect the privacy of these individuals and their families.”
A fifth American was released in a separate gesture by Iran and left Iran individually before the plane carrying the three Americans departed. Also on the plane were Rezaian’s Iranian wife, Yeganeh Salehi, and his mother, Mary Rezaian.
Awaiting their arrival in Germany were Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron, Post Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl and Jason Rezaian’s brother, Ali Rezaian.
In his remarks Sunday from the Cabinet Room of the White House, Obama spoke of the ordeals suffered by the detained Americans. He called Rezaian “a courageous journalist . . . who wrote about the daily lives and hopes of the Iranian people,” adding: “He embodies the brave spirit that gives life to the freedom of the press.”
Obama said the seven Iranians being granted clemency in the deal “were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses.” And he described their release as “a one-time gesture to Iran” that reflects U.S. willingness to engage with the country “to advance our mutual interests.”
Although Iranian officials characterized the arrangement as an “exchange,” none of the seven who were granted clemency – six Iranian Americans and one with solely Iranian citizenship – were handed over to Iran, as in a traditional prisoner swap. Instead, U.S. officials said, they were free to decide individually whether to go to Iran.
At least five have chosen not to go, according to their lawyers.
Calling a recent missile test by Iran a “violation of its international obligations,” Obama said the United States as a result “is imposing sanctions on individuals and companies working to advance Iran’s ballistic missile program.”
The Treasury Department said the new sanctions apply to, among others, the Mabrooka Trading Co., based in the United Arab Emirates, and its networks based in that Persian Gulf country and in China. It said they have used front companies to deceive foreign suppliers about the true end-users of “sensitive goods for missile proliferation.”
Saturday’s coordinated moves to implement the nuclear deal and free prisoners cemented a major diplomatic victory for the Obama administration, which won significant nuclear concessions from Iran in an effort to defuse an international crisis that threatened to spark a new Middle East war. The agreement also frees Iran from crippling economic sanctions and opens the way for ending decades of diplomatic and economic isolation.
“This evening, we are really reminded once again of diplomacy’s power to tackle significant challenges,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Saturday night after the implementation was announced. “We have approached this challenge with the firm belief that exhausting diplomacy before choosing war is an imperative. And we believe that today marks the benefits of that choice.”
But the agreement also contains significant political risk for a White House that is staking its legacy on Iran’s willingness to comply with unprecedented curbs and extensive monitoring of its nuclear program. The pact – which has been repeatedly condemned by the Israeli government as well as by members of Congress from both parties – drew fresh attacks Saturday from Republican presidential contenders, some of whom blasted the deal as a sellout to Iran’s clerical rulers.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his concern over Iran’s pivot away from international isolation. He asserted that Iranian leaders still harbor a desire to build atomic weapons but did not offer evidence to support that claim.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate political and religious authority in the Shiite Muslim theocracy, has said Iran does not want or need nuclear weapons, which he has declared to be forbidden by Islam.
“Even after the signing of the nuclear agreement, Iran has not relinquished its aspiration to obtain nuclear weapons,and it will continue to undermine stability in the Middle East and spread terrorism around the world while violating its international obligations,” Netanyahu said.
“Israel will continue to monitor the situation and warn about Iran’s negative activity, and will do everything necessary to safeguard its security and defend itself,” he said.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab opponents of Iran refrained from issuing such critical responses. But officials in Riyadh are deeply skeptical of the nuclear agreement: they fear that with billions of dollars of assets unfrozen by the accord, Tehran will be able to greatly expand its influence across the region.
In the Saudis’ view, such a development could affect the conflicts in Yemen, Syria and other countries where Saudi Arabia and Iran – fierce ideological and strategic rivals – use proxies to compete for influence.
The nuclear pact calls on Iran to disable key nuclear equipment in a deal designed to ensure that Iranian officials could never accumulate enough fissile material to build a nuclear bomb. The agreement also requires unprecedented inspections and monitoring covering all aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, from uranium mining to research facilities.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif echoed Kerry’s remarks, saying on Twitter that “diplomacy requires patience, but we all know that it sure beats the alternatives.” Implementation of the deal, Zarif said, meant that “it’s now time for all – especially Muslim nations – to join hands and rid the world of violent extremism. Iran is ready.”
The release of prisoners had not been officially part of negotiations between Iran and the six world powers: the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. But Kerry frequently raised the plight of imprisoned U.S. citizens during last year’s nuclear talks.
The Obama administration had come under heavy criticism for concluding the nuclear accord without winning the release of American detainees, including Rezaian, 39, whose 544-day detention is the longest ever by a Western journalist in Iran. White House officials confirmed that the swap was clinched during months of secret talks that gained momentum in the days before the nuclear pact was formally implemented.
“Friends and colleagues at The Washington Post are elated by the wonderful news that Jason Rezaian has been released from Evin Prison and has safely left the country with his wife, Yeganeh Salehi,” said Frederick J. Ryan Jr., publisher of The Post. “We are enormously grateful to all who played a role in securing his release. Our deep appreciation also goes to the many government leaders, journalists, human rights advocates and others around the world who have spoken out on Jason’s behalf and against the harsh confinement that was so wrongly imposed upon him,” he said.
“Now a free man, Jason will be reunited with his family, including his brother Ali, his most effective and tireless advocate. We look forward to the joyous occasion of welcoming him back to the Washington Post newsroom,” Ryan said.
In addition to Rezaian, the Americans freed Saturday included Saeed Abedini, 35, of Boise, Idaho; Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, 32, of Flint, Mich.; and Khosravi-Roodsari, U.S. and Iranian officials said.
A fifth American, identified as language student Matt Trevithick, was also released Saturday but was not part of the exchange deal. Trevithick’s parents said in a statement that he had been held for 40 days in Evin Prison. A senior U.S. official said Trevithick, 30, has already left Iran.
Abedini is a Christian pastor who had been imprisoned since July 2012 for organizing home churches. Hekmati is a former Marine who spent more than four years in prison on spying charges following his arrest in August 2011 during a visit to see his grandmother.
The detention of Khosravi-Roodsari had not been previously publicized. Iranian state television identified him as a businessman. Little else was known about him.
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.”
Rezaian’s ordeal damaged his health, drew protests from media and human rights groups, and hampered efforts to improve relations between Washington and Tehran. It also exposed fault lines and infighting in Iran’s opaque political system, where Rezaian and other detained Americans appeared to become pawns in a larger internal struggle between hard-liners and reformists seeking to improve ties with the West.
Rezaian was tried last year behind closed doors on vague charges of espionage and other alleged offenses and was sentenced to an unspecified prison term.
His 2014 arrest and subsequent trial and conviction in Iran’s secretive Revolutionary Court system – on charges that were never publicly disclosed or substantiated – appeared to reflect a power play by hard-liners fiercely loyal to Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, against more moderate reformist elements under President Rouhani. The hard-liners control Iran’s security forces, intelligence apparatus, judiciary and most other levers of power, while Rouhani – though answerable to Khamenei – has been given relatively free rein to manage Iran’s foreign affairs and improve its economy.
In recent weeks, Iran took significant steps to meet its obligations under the deal.
Increased U.S.-Iranian cooperation appeared to be on display Wednesday when Iran released 10 U.S. sailors within a day after they were seized by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps naval forces in the Persian Gulf. The Americans were on two small riverine boats that strayed into Iranian waters.
Against this backdrop, the signs of rapprochement raised hopes for a resolution in Rezaian’s case.