Five Americans who have been held in Iran for years are on their way to the United States in return for Iranians released from U.S. custody and access to $6 billion dollars in frozen oil revenues, according to a senior U.S. official.
The Americans include Siamak Namazi, 51, who was held in Iran since 2015 — nearly all the time in prison — making him the longest-held American at least since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979. In January, he sent a letter from jail to President Biden pleading for help in winning his freedom and announcing a short hunger strike.
The others are Murad Tahbaz, an environmental activist, detained in 2018, Emad Shargi, arrested while visiting Iran in 2018, and two other U.S. citizens not publicly named. Tahbaz’s wife and Namazi’s mother — who had not been allowed to leave Iran — were also flown out, according to U.S. officials.
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