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The chairman and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee are urging the Biden administration to get Americans wrongfully detained in Iran home, while the two sides are struggling in their negotiations to reenter the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.
Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and Michael McCaul (R-TX) called on the president “to continue to vigorously pursue the release of U.S. hostages currently being held by Iran” on Monday. “Several Americans continue to be unjustly imprisoned or otherwise prevented from leaving Iran, including Siamak Namazi, Baquer Namazi, and Emad Shargi, as well as U.S.-UK citizen Morad Tahbaz.”
IRAN VOWS TO AVENGE DEATH OF REVOLUTIONARY GUARD COLONEL SHOT DEAD
The Namazi duo, Shargi, and Tahbaz are among roughly 60 Americans who are wrongfully detained abroad, according to nonprofit groups such as the Foley Foundation, though a State Department official told the Washington Examiner last week that the number who have received the State Department’s “wrongfully detained” designation is less than that, in part due to their specific qualifications for it to be given.
The same day the lawmakers called on the administration to do more to get them home, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, “It remains a very big question mark as to whether we will get there,” concerning whether the U.S. and Iran would be able to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“Regardless of whether there is a JCPOA or not, President Biden has committed that Iran will never be in a position to obtain a nuclear weapon,” he added. “We are engaging with allies and partners around the world in the absence of a JCPOA to ensure that even in the case that we are unable to get there that Iran will not be able to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Also on Monday, Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, acknowledged that Iran is on the verge of having enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon.
“This is going to happen, because they continue to enrich, in a quite sustained way,” he explained. “And so, it’s a matter of time, where they get to one or more so-called ‘significant quantities’ … which is the quantity … for which the development of a nuclear weapon cannot be excluded.”
