September 15, 2023
by Warren L. Nelson
The Islamic Republic and the United States have closed a deal under which Iran will free five of the eight American-linked hostages it holds, in exchange for which the US will free five of about a dozen Iranians imprisoned by the US federal government and partially release about $6 billion in Iranian assets frozen in South Korea.
Many Republicans in Congress are screaming loudly, accusing President Biden of paying an immense ransom for the American prisoners and just encouraging Tehran to take even more Americans captive. Many also acted like the $6 billion was American money, although it actually is Iranian money that was frozen by US sanctions.
Former President Trump has gone even further charging that Biden will receive a “kickback” from the $6 billion. “How much of a kickback does Crooked Joe get?” Trump asked, baring down hard on what has become a key campaign allegation, that Biden is very corrupt and uses his son, Hunter, to get money from foreign countries for him. (Two Americans held hostage by Iran were freed when Trump was president and he did not give any money to Iran for those releases.)
Three of the prisoners Iran says it has asked for are in jail still awaiting trial including, most famously, Kaveh Afrasiabi, who is well-known for writing newspaper articles and giving interviews defending the Islamic Republic. The US published the texts of emails showing he was paid to allow Iranian diplomats to edit his drafts. The US charged him with failure to register as a foreign agent, as required by law. The two others awaiting trial are Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, a Canadian, charged with smuggling laboratory equipment, and Amin Hasanzadeh, a US green card holder, charged with stealing engineering plans from his employer for delivery to Iran.
The two others Iran wants are almost finished their prison terms. One, Mehrdad Ansari, was due for release in 11 weeks after serving time for smuggling military parts to Iran, and the other, Kambiz Attar Kashani, was due for release in five months; he had also smuggled military material to Iran. Both are dual nationals.
It remains to be seen if the five will choose to return to Iran or will just stay in the US, which is their right as citizens or green card holders. The last release of a group of dual nationals saw none of them going back to Iran to live.
The US and Iran both said the money to be un-frozen in South Korea totaled about $6 billion. Many noted that Iran has long said the frozen funds totaled $7 billion. But the money was kept at Iran’s insistence in Korean won, and the Korean won has lost a lot of its value recently.
The Islamic Republic has told the Iranian public that it will spend the money on whatever it chooses to spend it on. It has said that repeatedly and it seems very important to Iran to make that point. But the US State Department has repeatedly said that is not true. It says the funds will not be deposited in Iran, but in a special account in Qatar where an overseer will have to approve every withdrawal and the withdrawals can only be made for food, pharmaceuticals and certain medical equipment.
The US sanctions laws impose that limitation. In fact, that same restriction applied when the money was frozen in South Korea, but for some unexplained reasons, South Korea did not allow Iran to have access to the funds for any purpose. So, in other words, the US is not unfreezing funds it wanted totally frozen, it is arranging the transfer of the funds to another country that will allow the funds to managed in accord with US law.
Despite that, Republican officeholders are acting as if the money is sitting in Iran’s back pocket. As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “The $6 billion ransom payment will help Iran build nuclear weapons, support terrorism, oppress the Iranian people and assist Russia. Biden’s appeasement and weakness emboldens Iran to attack us and our allies, and facilitates Iran becoming closer than ever to nuclear weapons.”
Others have pointed out that money is fungible, so if Iran now has this money to use for food and pharmaceuticals, that frees other funds in Iran that can be used for terrorism or military purchases. But Iran has about $20 billion in funds frozen all around the world, and only the $6 billion in South Korea could not be used for food and medicines. So, it isn’t clear that the Islamic Republic has actually gained anything new, unless it needs more than $14 billion for food and medicine imports.
The five dual nationals being freed by Iran include Siamak Namazi, 51, Emad Shargi, 58, and Morad Tahbaz, 67. The names of the other two have not been released, because their families have not signed the paperwork required by the Privacy Act to allow the US government to name them. One of them was reportedly detained by Iran July 21 and the other, a woman, August 8.
Three other people who are Iranian nationals with American green cards are not being released Jamshid Sharmahd (who has been sentenced to death), Shahab Dalili and Afshin Sheikholeslami Vatani. Their families are protesting loudly that they have been abandoned. The US has not explained why they are not included. Under international law, a country is responsible only for its citizens and not for those who are legal residents but not citizens. However, several years ago Congress passed legislation that made the US responsible for green card holders who are held as hostages. (In Sharmahd’s case, he holds German citizenship and the State Department has said it is leaving his case up to the German government.)
Earlier, on June 2, Iran freed three Europeans two dual Austrian-Iranians, and one Dane. They followed the release of Belgian Olivier Vandecasteele. The four men were exchanged for Iranian diplomat Asadollah Assadi, who had been jailed by Belgium for organizing a plot to bomb a Mojahedin-e Khalq rally in France. No money was understood to be involved in that release. The freed dual nationals going back to Austria are Masud Mosaheb and Kamran Ghaderi, both of whom had been sentenced to 10 years by Iran. Belgium said at least 22 innocent European nationals remain imprisoned in Iran. France put the number at 30.
In the latest Iran-US agreement, the prisoners are all to be released once all the money is converted from won into euros and moved entirely to an account in Qatar. This is a process that has taken weeks, officials said, because the funds are being moved and converted in numerous small batches so there will be no economic impact on the Korean economy. The money is going from Korea to Switzerland in won and being converted to euros in Switzerland and then moved to Qatar.
This latest release of Americans detained by Iran is the 20th such release since the US embassy prisoners were freed in 1981.
