Tentative Tehran-Washington Hostage Deal May Be Sign of Movement on Iran Nuclear Program

A tentative deal for the release of five Iranian-Americans held hostage in Iran in return for a $6 billion payment could augur larger, perhaps silent agreements between Washington and Tehran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. A lawyer for some of the hostages, Jared Genser, was the first to break the news Thursday, confirming that three of the Iranian-Americans — Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi, and Morad Tahbaz — were released from the notorious Evan prison. The names of two other hostages were not made public, reportedly to protect their privacy. The hostages were transferred to a Tehran hotel, where they are to be held under house arrest until the deal is completed. America has reportedly agreed to release $6 billion that has long been held in a South Korean bank as part of sanctions that have been imposed on the Islamic Republic, the New York Times reports, adding that the funds would be transferred to a bank in Qatar, and released for the verified use of humanitarian projects in Iran. Past reporting has tied the Korean funds — estimated by some to be as much as $7 billion — to a larger deal involving a freeze on Iran’s uranium enrichment. In the interim, billions of dollars are likely to be used for more than merely aiding needy Iranians. Money is fungible, and the regime could use it for arms and terrorism.At the same time, even White House officials confirm that the tentative deal will not be completed until all hostages are released from house arrest and flown to America.The emerging details show this is “not a standard operation,” a former hostage in Iran, Xiyue Wang, tells the Sun. When he was released in December 2019, “I was taken directly to the airport,” Mr. Wang says. Most hostages are released immediately after deals are struck, rather than being held under house arrest pending their completion. While at the time Mr. Wang’s fellow hostage, Michael White, did have to wait in Iran for a few more months, another major difference between today’s apparent deal and the 2019 hostages release is that no money exchanged hands back then.“The regime understood that they were not going to get anything from Trump,” Mr. Wang says. “But when team Biden came in, it was clear that Iran policy was going to shift 180 degrees.” As a result, “the Biden administration has no leverage over the Iranians,” which has “a substantial effect over the hostage-taking business.”That business is proving increasingly profitable. In 2016, under President Obama, “Iran released four hostages for $1.7 billion. Now it’s $6 or $7 billion for five hostages,” the policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, Jason Brodsky, tells the Sun. “Iran clearly is successfully raising the price tag of hostage release.” There are some 10,000 Iranian-Americans living in Iran, Mr. Wang says, adding: “How much are they going to ask next time they take some of them hostage?” While he is happy for the release of hostages who, like him, spent time in the notorious Evan prison, he is adamant that paying ransom for hostages is bad for a superpower like America. Other critics agree. “Releasing $6 billion to the butchers in Tehran just so American hostages can go to a different type of prison is a terrible deal,” a former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, wrote on his X account. “Iran shouldn’t profit from holding Americans hostage.”While the emerging deal may be celebrated by admirers of Mr. Biden’s diplomatic chops and criticized by his detractors, it might be a part of a larger American attempt at rapprochement with the Islamic Republic. In May, Mr. Biden’s senior Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, traveled to Oman at the same time that Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, was there. Following that trip to the place where the initial negotiations over the 2016 nuclear deal were held, several news outlets reported about possible new understanding over the nuclear file. Some $7 billion that is frozen in Korean banks would be released, the Korea Economic Daily reported on May 30. In exchange, Tehran would release “a US hostage held in Iran on spying charges and limit uranium enrichment levels during nuclear development at 60 percent,” the publication said.That deal, it was widely reported, would be unsigned, as a way to escape congressional scrutiny under the 2015 Iran Policy Oversight Act. Critics have said it would turn Iran into a nuclear-capable threshold state, allowing it to test a weapon at the time of its choosing. Either way, following Mr. McGurk’s Oman trip in the spring, America largely stopped enforcing oil export and other sanctions. Iranian funds held in Iraqi banks under the sanction regime were released incrementally, leading some to suspect that beyond hostage release, a new agreement was in the offing. “Should the current deal be the opening salvo of a lesser or unwritten political arrangement with Iran over its nuclear program, then Washington will have truly learned nothing and forgotten everything about how to conduct diplomacy with Tehran,” an Iran watcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Behnam Ben Taleblu, tells the Sun.

Tentative Tehran-Washington Hostage Deal May Be Sign of Movement on Iran Nuclear Program

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