The first glimpse of a secretly negotiated US-Iran prisoner exchange came on Saturday in a flurry of early morning electronic filings in federal courts from New York to California as prosecutors dropped sanctions violations cases against more than half a dozen Iranians.
The low-key legal steps were followed by Iran’s announcement via state media that it was freeing four Iranian-Americans, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and Amir Hekmati, a former US Marine. Hours later, Secretary of State John Kerry said they had all been released and would soon be on their way home.
The prisoner swap was choreographed to coincide with a high-level diplomatic gathering in Vienna that sealed the end of a decade of international sanctions on Iran in return for meeting its commitment to curb its nuclear programme.
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The deal, a major step toward overcoming acrimony standing in the way of any further rapprochement between long-time foes Washington and Tehran, was the culmination of months of diplomatic contacts, secret talks and legal manoeuvring.
And, according to an account pieced together by Reuters on previously unreported Obama administration deliberations, the prisoner exchange came close to falling apart because of a threat by Washington in December to impose fresh sanctions on Iran for recent ballistic missile tests.
The nuclear deal signed on July 14 between Iran and world powers was trumpeted by the White House as a signature foreign policy achievement by President Barack Obama. But he also faced criticism for refusing to make the accord contingent on Iran’s release of Americans known to be held by Iran.
In public comments, Obama had insisted as recently as mid-December that linking the Americans’ fate directly to the nuclear negotiations would have encouraged the Iranians to seek additional concessions.