Secret negotiations that led to Saturday’s prisoner swap that freed Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and three other U.S.-Iranian citizens caused the Obama administration last month to back down at the last minute on slapping a set sanctions on Iran, according to a report Saturday.
The news, along with the release Saturday of the prisoners hours before the U.N. officially certified Iran had carried out its agreement to dismantle nuclear infrastructure, indicated talks over detained Americans were closely linked to the nuclear accord.
That contradicts months of Obama administration claims that the issues were separate.
U.S. officials, speaking to reporters Saturday on the condition of anonymity, argued here was no connection between the nuclear deal and the release of the Americans.
The U.S. last month was set to announce targeted sanctions penalizing Iran for test firing a ballistic missile able to deliver a nuclear warhead. But Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned Secretary of State John Kerry the move could derail the prisoner deal the two sides had been negotiating, Reuters reported.
The warning sparked a series of calls between Kerry and other top Obama aides that resulted in a decision to delay the sanctions, according to the report. Obama was vacationing in Hawaii with his family at the time.
With the prisoners now free, the U.S. is likely to quickly impose the unilateral sanctions responding to the missile test.
But the link between the nuclear issue talks and the prisoner deal calls into questions past explanations by Kerry and the White House for why the prisoners were not released as part of the nuclear deal. Administration officials argued discussions on the prisoners were separate from the nuclear talks.
But multiple reports Saturday revealed months of secret talks over the prisoners at least partly tied to the nuclear deal. Talks on the prisoners took place alongside the nuclear deal in Switzerland last year with Kerry and other top officials working on the prisoner issue alongside the nuclear pact, the left-leaning Huffington Post reported.
