President Joe Biden reached a deal that frees U.S. citizens from Iran in exchange for imprisoned Iranians and unfreezes $6 billion in Iranian assets, Biden officials announced on Thursday.
The United States will receive five Americans who have been detained by Iran over spying allegations. In return, the U.S. will give Iran several Iranian nationals who violated Iranian sanctions.
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“We have received confirmation that Iran has released from prison five Americans who were unjustly detained and has placed them on house arrest,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement. “While this is an encouraging step, these U.S. citizens — Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Shargi, and two Americans who at this time wish to remain private — should have never been detained in the first place.”
Watson said the U.S. would continue to monitor the Americans, four of whom have been placed under house arrest in a Tehran hotel. But it is still expected to take weeks until the citizens are back home on U.S. soil, and the situation is still considered delicate as talks on the exchange continue.
The three American prisoners that have been identified were each sentenced to 10 years in prison. Namazi was detained in 2015 and sentenced to 10 years for allegedly spying on Iran. Tahbaz is a British-American conservationist of Iranian descent who was sentenced in 2018. It is not clear when Shargi, who was a venture capitalist, was detained. The other two Americans did not want to be identified, but one is believed to be a scientist and the other is a businessman.
The prisoner exchange agreement was mediated through Oman, Qatar, and Switzerland as tension between Iran and the United States remains high.
The Biden administration also agreed to release $6 billion in assets that had been frozen in South Korea and were blocked by U.S. sanctions. But if the deal goes through, Iran can use the funds to buy food and medicine, or for other humanitarian purposes. In accordance with the agreement, Oman will oversee the funds, NBC News reported.
Although the deal has largely been celebrated by officials within the Biden administration, critics have slammed the administration’s relinquishment of the funds. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Vice President and 2024 presidential contender Mike Pence have blasted the move as a “terrible deal” because Iran should not profit from detaining Americans.
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“Releasing $6 billion to the butchers in Tehran just so American hostages can go to a different type of prison is a terrible deal,” Pompeo posted to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “Iran shouldn’t profit from holding Americans hostage.”
Pence said the move amounted to the “largest ransom payment in American history.”
