It appeared that the resignation was a requirement for Yazdi’s release, but neither the government nor Yazdi specifically linked the two.
The state news agency quoted Yazdi as saying, “I resign from the post of secretary general of the Freedom Movement of Iran.” No rationale was given in the news article.
Yazdi worked in Houston before the revolution as a cancer researcher. He is a naturalized American citizen. In 1978, he flew to Paris and was one of the circle of Western-educated men who served as staff aides to Ayatollah Khomeini and then won positions in the revolutionary government.
Yazdi rose to become foreign minister under Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan. With the rest of the Bazargan cabinet, he resigned in November 1979 when Khomeini would not order an end to the seizure of the US embassy.
The Freedom Movement of Iran was founded in 1961 by Bazargan. In opposition after the embassy seizure, Yazdi became Bazargan’s deputy and succeeded him as party leader after Bazargan’s death in 1995.
The party has never been licensed and has been forbidden to run candidates for office. But it was for a long time allowed to function and foreign reporters visiting Iran often had interviews with Yazdi arranged by the government to show that it allowed the opposition to operate. In recent years, however, the regime has cracked down heard on the party.
Yazdi has been arrested periodically over the years and detained for periods. He was last arrested last September.
He was due to stand trial shortly for “activities against national security, propaganda against the regime, and joining in the founding of the Freedom Movement.” Actually, he had nothing to do with the founding of the party.
Those charges against him will presumably now be dismissed, but no announcement has yet been made.