Translated material
Five by five and six billion in addition
The exchange of prisoners with Iran caused a scandal in the United States
Photo: AP / TASS
The return of 5 American citizens from the Iranian prison in exchange for the liberation of 5 Iranians detained in the United States and the transfer of 6 billion dollars to Tehran caused an ambiguous reaction in America. Critics of Biden - including Donald Trump - argue that the terms of the transaction “encourage Iran and other enemies of America” to seize new hostages.
On the contrary, the Biden administration gives this liberation as a political and diplomatic achievement, which the voter will remember, voting in the elections. Negotiations with Iran lasted more than two years. On Monday, the president made a special statement, noting that the five innocent Americans imprisoned, finally returned home and will meet with their relatives after many years of "agony, uncertainty and suffering." The American president noted that too many people are “unfairly retained” in Russia, Venezuela, Syria and other countries of the world. “We will not stop working, until we return the home of every American, taken hostage or illegally detained,” Baiden promised. One of the latest examples is the detention of the Wall Street Journal of Evan Gershkovich accused of espionage in Russia in March in Russia.
The White House said that the president had a “very emotional conversation” with the families of Iranian captives. Siamak Namazi, one of the liberated Americans, said that he had dreamed of freedom for almost 8 years, having survived “prison flour” within 2898 days. “My sincere gratitude to President Biden and his administration, who had to make incredibly difficult decisions in order to save us,” the former hostage said. Americans of Iranian origin (double citizenship owners), Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz have been kept in Evin prison, where political prisoners have been contained from 1972 to this day (before and after the Islamic Revolution).
This place is called one of the worst on the planet. For a large number of intellectuals sitting there, the institution received the nickname "University of Evin."
The names of the two liberated Americans have not yet been disclosed at the request of the families. All five were accused of espionage. As soon as the process of transferring 6 billion dollars from accounts in South Korea ended in a bank in Doha, former prisoners were taken to the capital of Qatar, where, as the American media noted, there was an exchange in the style of the Cold War - two of the five Iranians. Three more, noted in the Biden administration, refused to return to their homeland. Two of them decided to stay in the USA, one will fly to the "third country." Maybe this is the owner of the Canadian passport of the Reza Sarkhanngpur Kafrani, who was accused of exporting laboratory equipment for the Iranian nuclear program.
On Tuesday, early in the morning, when the US President Joe Biden and his Iranian colleague Ebrahim Raisisi arrived in New York on the UN General Assembly, the liberated Americans landed at the Virginia air base. Their return was shown by all the largest television channels of America. Together with the prisoners in the United States, the owner of the American passport arrived - the mother of Namazi and the wife of the Tahbaz, who were previously forbidden to leave Iran.
The deal coincided with the anniversary of protests in Iran, caused by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She was arrested by a special patrol of the “Police of Religious Morality” for “The Nonsense of Hijab” in accordance with the Iranian “state standards”. September 16 last year, she died in the hospital. The authorities said that the girl had a heart attack in the police station and she fell into a coma. However, eyewitnesses, including women detained with Amini, said that Mahsa was brutally beaten and died as a result of the police. The opposition said that the girl had a brain hemorrhage due to her head injuries obtained as a result of arrest. A wave of protests swept through Iran, which continued this year.
According to the UN, hundreds of people were killed, including at least 44 minors, and about 20 thousand Iranians were arrested.
To prevent new performances, on the eve of the anniversary of the Iranian authorities arrested dozens of people. Representatives of the Iranian opposition, including emigrating to the United States, are convinced that the Iranian authorities have been dealing with Bayden right now in order to "divert the attention of peace from a terrifying situation with human rights." Hadi Gayemi, the executive director of the Human Rights Center in Iran of the New York Human Rights Group, called the incentive to the Iranian people, which caused the anger of very many within the country. But representatives of the Iran mission at the UN rejected criticism, saying that the time for the release of American detainees depended only on the receipt of $ 6 billion to a bank account in Doha and that Iran did not control the process.
The American opponents of Biden have other reasons for indignation. The most sharp, predictable, was the 45th president, the leader of the election race among Republicans Donald Trump.
Donald Trump:
“I brought home 58 hostages from different countries, including North Korea, and never paid anything. They all realized that they should let these people go home! In the end, it came to the point that the countries did not even start a conversation with a request for money because they knew that they would not receive them, ”Trump wrote in his social network Truth Social. “Once you pay, you will always pay, and there will be a capture of many more hostages. Our extremely incompetent “leader” ... Joe Biden gave $ 6 billion for 5 people. Iran gave (us) zero for five. He (Biden) is stupid like a stone! " (Trump punctuation is preserved).
Earlier, the former owner of the White House called a deal to release from Russia basketball player Britney Grainer "crazy and bad." He stated that during his presidency he refused to exchange the former US naval infantryman Paul Wylan, held by Moscow since 2018, to the Russian weapon of weapons of Viktor Buta.
Trump is not alone. Republicans and part of the Democrats are dissatisfied with the exchange (the most right and left are here).
“The embarrassing peace of Joe Bayden makes Iran stronger, and America is less safe,” wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter) Senator-Republican Tom Cotton from Arkansas. As the presidential elections in the United States approaches, any action of the White House will predictably cause criticism of the president’s political opponents. Moreover, now, when the Congress has just been heard on the initiative of the Republicans, designed to achieve Biden's impeachment. Which, I note, if it takes place in the lower house, then there will be no statement in the Senate. But in politics it often happens that the process seems more important than the result.
The devil, as they say, sits in details. Former Washington Post correspondent in Tehran Jason Rezian, arrested by the Iranian authorities and spent 544 days before liberation in 2016, interviewed Brett McGgerk, the National Security Council in the Middle East and North Africa, who clarified the details of the transaction. McGgerk conducted secret negotiations when Reziana was released in 2016, and led them now. The official explained that "not everything is so unambiguous." In this case, this is not just a figure of speech.
Biden, making a deal, understood that criticism was waiting for him in the country and in the world. However, Mcgerke emphasizes if people had not been returned home, they would have to languish in one of the worst prisons of the world for many more years. “A potential death sentence hung over some of our citizens,” the diplomat noted.
First. 6 billion paid for five Americans of Iranian origin is not the money of American taxpayers. South Korea transferred Qatar banks $ 6 billion, which she owed to Iran for the purchase of crude oil. That is, as President Raisi explained on the sidelines of the UN, "this money belonged to Iran."
Second. Funds can only be spent on a limited category of “humanitarian trade”: food, medicine and agricultural products. Not on a nuclear program, not for supplying weapons. Now these funds are “more legal restrictions” than when they were in South Korea. These details matter, McGgerk noted. It took time to agree with the Iranians.
Responding to the statement that the Trump administration has achieved the issuance of Americans “free”, the responsible official of the National Security Council emphasized that double citizenship cases are “the most difficult”. Under the administration of Trump, not a single citizen with dual citizenship was released. As for the Americans who were released, then transactions were carried out for "rather important people whom Iran wanted to return, and they returned." “These are difficult decisions for any president. But let's be honest with regard to the facts, ”Brett McGgerk said in an interview.
And most importantly, they emphasize in the US State Department, the deal does not change anything in relations with Iran. Iran is an "opponent and sponsor of terrorism." The United States will hold the Iranian regime, where and when possible.
The exchange does not apply to the Iranian nuclear program, which, as noted in Washington, is at an impasse. Trump left the agreement, and Tehran is in no hurry to return and fulfill the requirements of the West.
Moreover, the prospect of Trump's return to the White House is by no means conditional, although it seems to many fantastic.
By announcing the exchange, Washington simultaneously imposed sanctions against former President Iran Mahmud Akhmadinejad and the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. The sanctions were announced in accordance with the Levinson Law (the law adopted in the United States in 2020 is named after the retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who, as they believe, died during the detention in Iran). This law is aimed at those who are responsible for holding US citizens under hostage. That is, potentially it can be applied to Russian officials and judges.
On Tuesday, the US Department of Finance Control of the US Department of Finance (OFAC) imposed sanctions against 7 individuals from Iran, China, Russia and Turkey in connection with Iranian drones and military aircraft. 3 Russian companies were on the sanctions list:
The Delta-Aero maintenance center set the Iranian aircraft industrial company (HESA) propellers and tires for the An-140 aircraft, which it equipped for military purposes;
The Aerosil Scientific and Production Enterprise (Aerosil OJSC) conducted ground and flight tests for HESA and contributed to the supply of auxiliary power plants for the Iranian company;
The Star joint-stock company (OJSC Star) entered into contracts with Iranians for the overhaul of the components of the An-140 aircraft.
The return of 5 Americans of Iranian origin did not soften the current “cold climate”, established in the bilateral relations of Washington and Tehran. President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken again urge the Americans not to go to Iran. Under no circumstances. This also applies to other US hostile states. It will be very difficult to return them if these people become new hostages of the "political games" of the powerful of this world.