After it was reported on Thursday that Iran had transferred five Iranian Americans from prison to house arrest, it became clear that a deal between the Biden administration and the radical Islamist state had been reached - which would include billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets in exchange for the Americans.
Anyway, sure enough, the United States and Iran have reached an agreement in which the Islamist regime will free the five Americans in exchange for several Iranian nationals serving prison sentences for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran - and unfreeze $6 billion of Iran's assets in South Korea, which will be transferred to an account in the central bank of Qatar.
Of course, we will not rest until they are all back home in the United States.
In other words, it appears that Iran still holds all the cards, with the Biden administration effectively self-neutered - despite the $6 billion that the mullahs in Tehran desperately want to get their hands on.
We are relieved to learn that Iranian authorities have released five U.S. citizens - Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi, and two individuals who at this time wish to remain private - from prison to house arrest.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in May that "There are wrongfully detained Americans elsewhere around the world, and we're working on that very, very hard," which takes us back to my earlier question: Should the United States make ransom payments in exchange for wrongfully-detained citizens?
While every unlawful detention of an American citizen by a foreign adversary is problematic at best, the circumstances of each occurrence vary.
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