Five Americans detained for years in Iran walked off a plane and into freedom Monday, most arm-in-arm, as part of a politically risky deal that saw U.S. President Joe Biden agree to the release of nearly US$6 billion in frozen Iranian assets owed by a third country, South Korea.
The successful negotiations for the Americans' freedom brought Biden profuse thanks from their families but heat from Republican presidential rivals and other opponents for the monetary arrangement with one of America's top adversaries.
The three -- Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz -- then threw their arms over one another's shoulders and walked off to a building in the airport. Two of the imprisoned Americans' family members, Effie Namazi and Vida Tahbaz, who had been under travel bans in Iran, also were on the plane. The women, too, clasped arms and kissed on the tarmac in Qatar.
The U.S. maintains that, once in Qatar, the money will be held in restricted accounts to be used only for humanitarian goods, such as medicine and food. Those transactions are currently allowed under American sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic over its advancing nuclear program. Former President Donald Trump, currently the lead Republican challenger in the polls against Biden's 2024 re-election bid, called it an "absolutely ridiculous" deal on the Truth Social social media site. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Biden of "rewarding and incentivizing Tehran's bad behavior."
The Americans included Namazi, who was detained in 2015 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison on spying charges; Emad Sharghi, a venture capitalist sentenced to 10 years; and Morad Tahbaz, a British-American conservationist of Iranian descent who was arrested in 2018 and also received a 10-year sentence.
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