Iran has transferred five Americans from prison to house arrest, according to authorities and family members, in the first step in a sensitive arrangement that would unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian funds and allow the convicts to leave the Islamic nation.
The progress on the captives, one of whom has been held for nearly eight years, comes after quiet, intensive negotiation between the longstanding enemies, whose separate talks on reviving a nuclear pact fell apart.
“My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare, and the nightmare that their families have experienced,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters.
According to sources involved with the talks, the next stage would be the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian oil earnings that had been held in South Korea to a special account in Qatar that Iran could only use for humanitarian imports such as food and medication.
Iran presented the agreement as a prisoner swap, citing Tehran’s mission to the United Nations as saying that each country will “grant amnesty and release five prisoners.”
If all goes as planned, the American detainees could depart Iran in September, according to one anonymous source.
Four of the convicts, Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharqi, Morad Tahbaz, and another who wanted anonymity, were released from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on Thursday, a day after President Joe Biden’s administration informed their families of the agreement.
According to a lawyer for one of the prisoners, the four were led to a hotel where they will be housed under security.
According to sources, a fifth American, a woman, is also involved in the negotiations and has been placed under house arrest in recent weeks.
“While this is a positive change, we will not rest until Siamak and others are back home; we continue to count the days until this can happen,” Babak Namazi, Siamak’s brother, said in a statement.
