The five prisoners, who were freed by Iran in a $6 billion deal, returned to the United States and were welcomed by their families in an emotional reunion.
Siamak Namazi, 51, Emad Sharqi, 59, and Morad Tahbaz, 67, as well as two others, officially returned to the United States on Monday after landing at Dulles Airport in Virginia.
The other two Americans asked to remain anonymous.
Namazi looked overwhelmed as he stepped off the Qatari plane after arriving in the southern state, stepping back in shock as a smile spread across his face. After leaving the plane, the former prisoner rushed to hug a family member, and the two embraced in a sweet moment after being separated for eight years.
The oil executive, who has dual citizenship in the United States and Iran, said he hopes to “become reacquainted with freedom” and see “foliage instead of walls and gatekeepers” and be able to “lie down in the grass, with the warm sun on my back.” face,” according to ABC News.
Sharqi was greeted by two women who excitedly ran toward him, one of them waving a small American flag. He grabbed the women tightly and kissed their foreheads in greeting.
US citizens Siamak Namazi (C-back), Emad Sharqi (bottom-L) and Morad Tahbaz (bottom-R) disembark a Qatari plane upon arrival at Doha International Airport in Doha on September 18, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
American prisoners and officials also posed for a group photo at Davison Army Airfield, all wearing bright smiles as they celebrated the five’s return home.
“Husbands and wives, parents and children, grandparents can hug each other again,” said Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, at a press conference in New York.
The former hostages were taken to a military facility in Virginia and given access to medical and mental care before being allowed to reunite with their families, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told GMA.
U.S. officials arranged for a group photo after freed Americans Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz and Emad Shargi, as well as two other returnees, arrived at Davison Army Airfield. AP
The deal removes a point of friction between the United States and Iran, which calls Washington the “Great Satan.” POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The United States and Iran reportedly exchanged five prisoners as Tehran gained access to $6 billion in frozen funds. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
They were all said to be in “relatively good health.”
The three men were being held on espionage charges, which they and the United States denied.
“Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally returning home,” President Biden said.
Relatives hug freed American Emad Shargi after he and four fellow detainees were freed in the prisoner exchange. AP
In addition, Tahbaz’s wife and Namazi’s mother were also granted the right to leave Iran, a right they had previously been denied.
In exchange, the United States granted clemency to five Iranians in the United States in a decision brokered by Qatar. The deal freed up $6 billion in assets from Iranian oil revenues that were tied to U.S. sanctions.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the exchange could be a “step in the direction of humanitarian action between us and the United States.”
A family member hugs released American Siamak Namazi (right), after disembarking from a plane at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
“It can definitely help build trust,” he said at a news conference in New York.
The Americans were released from the Qatari plane after the funds, which had been blocked in South Korea, were transferred, through Switzerland, to banks in Doha, Qatar, where they were taken before continuing to their home countries.
After the transfer was confirmed, the five American prisoners plus two family members took off on a Qatari plane from Tehran at the same time as two of the five Iranian detainees landed in Doha on their way home.
The five Americans freed by Iran, including one detained for eight years, left Tehran on a Qatari plane, hours after the unlocked funds were deposited into accounts also managed by Qatar. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Two returned home to Iran. Mehrdad Ansari, sentenced to 63 months in prison in 2021 for obtaining equipment that could be used in missiles; and Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, who was also charged in 2021 with illegally exporting laboratory equipment to his home country.
Three Iranians chose not to go to Iran.
The deal removes a point of friction between the United States, which calls Tehran a sponsor of terrorism, and Iran, which calls Washington the “Great Satan.”
Americans freed in a US-Iran exchange deal arrive in Doha.REUTERS
But it is unclear whether it will bring the two adversaries, who have been at odds for 40 years, closer on other issues, such as Iran’s nuclear program and its support for regional militias or the US military presence in the Gulf and US sanctions.
Namazi was arrested in 2015 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for “collaboration with a hostile government” for having ties to the United States.
Shargi, a businessman, was detained in 2018 and released in 2019 before being arrested again in 2020 and given a 10-year sentence for espionage.
Tahbaz, a conservationist, was also arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn