作为美国和伊朗之间协议的一部分，五名美国公民被空运出境，于周一抵达卡塔尔多哈，并于当天晚些时候登上飞往美国的航班。
被遣返的美国人包括西亚马克·纳马齐、艾玛德·沙尔吉和莫拉德·塔赫巴兹，以及另外两个要求不公开身份的人。这五个人都被美国政府认定为被错误拘留。
据一名美国官员说，塔巴兹的妻子维达和纳马齐的母亲艾菲也在安排中被允许离开伊朗。与其他五人不同，他们没有被伊朗政权监禁，但此前被禁止离开该国。
乔·拜登总统在一份声明中说，“今天，五名被关押在伊朗的无辜美国人终于要回家了。”
他说:“西亚马克·纳马齐、莫拉德·塔赫巴兹、艾玛德·沙尔基和两名希望保持隐私的公民将很快与他们的亲人团聚——在经历了多年的痛苦、不确定性和苦难之后。”“我感谢我们国内外的合作伙伴为帮助我们取得这一成果所做的不懈努力，包括卡塔尔、阿曼、瑞士和韩国政府。
他说:“我要特别感谢卡塔尔埃米尔谢赫·塔米姆·本·哈马德和阿曼苏丹哈伊塔姆·本·塔里克，他们两人在美国艰难而有原则的外交努力中，帮助促成了这一协议。”。
2023年9月18日，美国国务卿安东尼·布林肯在新闻发布会上宣布，在伊朗被监禁多年的五名美国人已经获释。
Craig Ruttle/POOL/法新社
美国国务卿布林肯(John Kerry)在纽约表示，他“非常高兴”在美国人抵达多哈后与他们进行了一次“情绪化的对话”，他说这很好地提醒了“我们所做的一切都以人为本”
他还指出，美国前联邦调查局特工鲍勃·莱文森在布林肯所说的他在伊朗被绑架16年后仍然下落不明。
“我们还想到了鲍勃·莱文森...据推测已经死亡。鲍勃的遗产在《莱文森法案》中有着强大的生命力，该法案为我们提供了新的强有力的工具，来打击和阻止非法将美国人变成政治棋子，并以这种方式滥用国际体系的行为。
伊朗外交部首先宣布，美国国民将于周一凌晨立即获释，履行华盛顿和德黑兰上个月达成的协议，美国承诺赦免五名伊朗人，并为伊朗获得大约60亿美元的冻结石油收入提供便利，条件是这笔钱用于人道主义目的。
这七人将由一架卡塔尔飞机运送到多哈。美国官员说，他们计划从那里“尽快”出发前往华盛顿特区，在那里他们将与家人团聚，国防部将随时帮助“可能要求帮助他们恢复和融入正常生活”的家庭
参与交易的五名伊朗人要么被指控，要么被判非暴力犯罪。其中两人没有在美国居留的合法身份，将被美国法警服务局运送到多哈，然后前往伊朗。
另外两人是美国合法永久居民，一人是伊朗裔美国公民。政府官员没有说他们是否会留在美国。
这五名被拘留的美国人都在伊朗臭名昭著的Evin监狱服刑，但在德黑兰和华盛顿达成原则协议后被软禁。
51岁的纳马齐是一名石油高管，也是伊朗裔美国双重民族主义者。他于2015年首次被拘留，随后因与美国的关系被判“与敌对政府合作”罪，被判处10年监禁。
58岁的商人Shargi于2018年被拘留，没有任何解释，并于2019年被释放，然后于2020年再次被捕，并因间谍罪被判处10年徒刑。
67岁的塔巴兹是伊朗裔美国环保主义者，同时拥有英国国籍。他于2018年被捕，并被判处10年有期徒刑。
布林肯上周签署了一项广泛的制裁豁免，为国际银行转移约60亿美元的伊朗石油收入扫清了道路，以换取伊朗释放五名被拘留的美国公民。
这60亿美元来自韩国的一个受限账户，在前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)离开伊朗核计划联合全面行动计划(JCPOA)后，美国恢复对德黑兰的制裁时，该账户实际上被冻结，并将被转移到卡塔尔，同时限制伊朗如何使用这笔资金。
伊朗外交部发言人纳赛尔·卡纳尼(Nasser Kanaani)表示，伊朗预计将于周一开始接收其被冻结的资产。他补充称，“积极的外交政策”导致这些资金得以解冻。
“今天，这一资产将被交付，”卡纳尼说。“它会被投资到需要的地方。”
在最初宣布后的几天里，共和党人抨击了计划中的互换。
“被伊朗扣押的美国人是无辜的人质，必须立即无条件释放。然而，我仍然深感关切的是，政府决定豁免制裁，以促进向伊朗转移60亿美元的资金，伊朗是世界上最大的支持恐怖主义的国家，这直接刺激了美国的对手未来进行人质劫持，”众议院外交事务委员会主席迈克·麦克考尔在一份声明中说。
但是国家安全委员会协调员约翰·柯比在周三的新闻发布会上坚持说，“伊朗不会得到任何制裁的解除。”
“这些账户中的伊朗资金允许外国进行一些贸易，比如伊朗石油。...这不是一张空白支票。他们不能想怎么花就怎么花。不是一下子60亿美元。他们将不得不提出仅出于人道主义目的的撤离请求，”他说，并补充说，将有“足够的监督，以确保该请求是有效的。”
柯比说，伊朗人民将是这些资金的受益者，而不是伊朗政权。
当被问及为什么除了释放五名伊朗囚犯外，还需要释放60亿美元时，柯比说，“这是我们能够达成的交易，以确保释放五名美国人。”
“我们对这笔交易的参数感到满意。我听到评论家说，不知何故，他们得到了更好的结局。去问那五个美国人的家庭，谁会得到更好的结果，我想你会得到不同的答案，”他说。
当被问及伊朗总统易卜拉欣·赖西声称这笔钱是“可替代的”时，柯比说，“他错了。他完全错了。”
柯比说，这份协议中的资金“不是任何形式的支付”，“不是赎金”，以确保美国人获释，这是对共和党抱怨的回应。
“期待这笔钱释放国内收入，用于更多的对外侵略和国内镇压。保卫民主基金会的高级研究员贝南·本·塔勒布卢说:“当然，每名人质和一名被监禁的伊朗国民的损失超过10亿美元。”。"如果德黑兰不加紧劫持人质，预计它会继续下去."
共和党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)在参议院的一次演讲中抨击了政府的谈判策略。
麦康奈尔说:“不幸的是，确保他们获释的协议很可能是拜登总统奖励和激励德黑兰恶劣行为的最新例子。”“在过去两年半的时间里，政府的软弱和绝望助长了一个大规模支持恐怖主义的国家的气焰，并将成为一个拥有核武器的侵略者。
麦康奈尔说:“拜登政府的绥靖记录和浪费的杠杆让美国人更不安全。”“现在迫切的问题是，总统何时会最终决定改弦更张。因为到目前为止，他的政府对恢复有缺陷的核协议的痴迷实际上表明了相反的情况。”
伊朗发言人卡纳尼表示，预计将从美国监狱释放的伊朗人中，只有两人愿意返回伊朗。
卡纳尼说:“两名伊朗公民愿意返回伊朗，一人在第三国与家人团聚，另外两名公民希望留在美国。”。
5 Americans freed from Iran headed to US
Five American citizens freed as part of a deal between the U.S. and Iran were flown out of the country and arrived in Doha, Qatar, Monday before boarding a flight to the U.S. later in the day.
The Americans being repatriated include Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz, as well as two others who asked that their identity not be made public. All five have been designated as wrongfully detained by U.S. government.
Tahbaz's wife, Vida, and Namazi's mother, Effie, were also allowed to leave Iran in the arrangement, according to a U.S. official. Unlike the other five, they had not been jailed by the Iranian regime but had previously been barred from leaving the country.
In a statement, President Joe Biden said, "Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home."
"Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi, and two citizens who wish to remain private will soon be reunited with their loved ones -- after enduring years of agony, uncertainty, and suffering," he said. "I am grateful to our partners at home and abroad for their tireless efforts to help us achieve this outcome, including the Governments of Qatar, Oman, Switzerland, and South Korea.
"I give special thanks to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, and to the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, both of whom helped facilitate this agreement over many months of difficult and principled American diplomacy," he said.
Secretary of State Blinken, speaking in New York, said that he had the "great pleasure" of having an "emotional conversation" with the Americans after they landed in Doha, saying it was a good reminder of the "human element that's at the heart of everything we do."
He also noted that American Bob Levinson, a former FBI agent, still remains unaccounted for more than 16 years after what Blinken said was his abduction in Iran.
"We are also thinking of Bob Levinson who ... is presumed to be deceased. Bob's legacy lives on powerfully in the Levinson Act which is giving us new and powerful tools to crack down and deter the practice of taking Americans unlawfully to try to turn them into political pawns, and to abuse the international system in that way," he said.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry first announced the U.S. nationals would be imminently released early Monday morning, fulfilling a deal struck between Washington and Tehran last month, where the U.S. promised to grant clemency to five Iranians and to facilitate Iran's access to roughly $6 billion in frozen oil revenue on the condition the money be put toward humanitarian purposes.
The seven will be transported via a Qatari aircraft to Doha. From there, U.S. officials say they plan to depart "as quickly as possible" for the Washington, D.C., area, where they will be reunited with their families and the Department of Defense will be on hand to assist families "that might request help for their recovery and integration to normal life."
The five Iranians involved in the trade have either been charged with or convicted of nonviolent offenses. Two do not have legal standing to stay in the U.S. and will be transported by U.S. Marshals Service to Doha and then travel on to Iran.
Two more are lawful permanent residents of the U.S., and one is a dual Iranian American citizen. Administration officials did not say whether they would remain the U.S.
The five detained Americans all served time in Iran's notorious Evin prison but were placed on house arrest when Tehran and Washington reached a deal-in-principle.
Namazi, 51, is an oil executive and an Iranian-American dual nationalist. He was first detained in 2015 and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison after a conviction on "collaboration with a hostile government" for his ties to the United States.
Shargi, a 58-year-old businessman, was detained without explanation in 2018 and released in 2019 before he was re-arrested in 2020 and handed down a 10-year sentence on an espionage charge.
Tahbaz, 67, is an Iranian-American conservationist who also holds British citizenship. He was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Blinken signed off on a broad sanctions waiver last week, clearing the way for international banks to transfer the roughly $6 billion in Iran oil revenue in exchange for Iran's release of the five detained American citizens.
The $6 billion is coming from a restricted account in South Korea, where it was effectively frozen when the U.S. reinstated sanctions against Tehran after former President Donald Trump left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran's nuclear program and will be transferred to Qatar with restrictions on how Iran can spend the funds.
Iran expected to begin receiving its frozen assets on Monday, Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said, adding that "active foreign policy" had led to the funds being unblocked.
"Today this asset will be delivered," Kanaani said. "It will be invested where needed."
Republicans blasted the planned swap in the days after the initial announcement.
"The Americans held by Iran are innocent hostages who must be released immediately and unconditionally. However, I remain deeply concerned that the administration's decision to waive sanctions to facilitate the transfer of $6 billion in funds for Iran, the world's top state sponsor of terrorism, creates a direct incentive for America's adversaries to conduct future hostage-taking," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul said in a statement.
But National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby insisted during a press briefing Wednesday that "Iran will be getting no sanctions relief."
"It's Iranian money that had been established in these accounts to allow some trade from foreign countries on things like Iranian oil. ... It's not a blank check. They don't get to spend it anyway they want. It's not $6 billion all at once. They will have to make a request for withdrawals for humanitarian purposes only," he said, adding that there will be "sufficient oversight to make sure that the request is valid."
The Iranian people will be the beneficiaries of the funds, not the regime, according to Kirby.
Pressed on why the $6 billion needed to be released in addition to the five Iranian prisoners, Kirby said, "This is the deal we were able to strike to secure the release of five Americans."
"We're comfortable in the parameters of this deal. I've heard the critics that somehow they're getting the better end of it. Ask the families of those five Americans who's getting the better end of it and I think you'd get a different answer," he said.
When asked about Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's claim that the money is "fungible," Kirby said, "He's wrong. He's just flat-out wrong."
Kirby said the funds in this agreement are "not a payment of any kind" and "not ransom" to secure the release of the Americans, responding to Republican complaints.
"Expect this money to free up revenues internally for more foreign aggression and domestic suppression. And certainly, at over one billion dollars per hostage and a jailed Iranian national" said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "Expect Tehran to continue if not step up its hostage taking."
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell slammed the administration for its negotiating tactics in a speech on the Senate floor.
"Unfortunately the deal that secured their release may very well be the latest example of President Biden rewarding and incentivizing Tehran's bad behavior," McConnell said. "Over the past two and a half years, the administration's weakness and desperation have emboldened a massive state sponsor of terror and would be nuclear-armed aggressor.
"The Biden administration's record of appeasement and squandered leverage has left Americans less secure," McConnell said. "The urgent question now is when the President will finally decide to change course. Because so far his administration's obsession with reviving a flawed nuclear deal actually suggests otherwise."
Kanaani, the Iranian spokesperson, said only two of the Iranians who were expected to be released from American prisons were willing to return to Iran.
"Two of [Iranian] citizens will willingly return to Iran based, one person joins his family in a third country, and the other two citizens want to stay in America," Kanaani said.
