Jailed Iranian-American Implores Biden To ‘End This Nightmare’
Imprisoned Iranian-Americans Siamak Namazi and his father Bagher Namazi
Jailed Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi has called on President Joe Biden for efforts to release him and other American citizens, asking him to “End This Nightmare.”
In a the longest-held Iranian American prisoner said Wednesday “the Biden administration’s approach to rescuing Americans in distress in Iran has failed spectacularly so far and unless the president intervenes immediately, we are likely to languish in this abyss for the foreseeable future.”
guest essay for the New York Times written "while caged in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison,”
He said he was handed a 10-year sentence for speaking at university conferences and having a connection to the World Economic Forum, which the judge ruled as “tantamount to attempting to overthrow the regime in collaboration with a hostile foreign government -- meaning the United States.”
He said Iran frees its captives only if offered sufficient incentives, adding that “Tehran seems to be demanding more for our release than the White House can stomach.” “Mr. Biden, I implore you to put the lives of innocent American detainees above Washington politics.”
Namazi has been in prison since October 2015 on vague charges of collaboration with a foreign government. After Siamak’s arrest, his 84-year-old father, Bagher Namazi, a retired senior UNICEF official, traveled to Iran in 2016 to help him but he was also arrested and jailed in 2017 on obscure accusations.
Tehran is accused of detaining foreigners and dual nationals on trumped up charges to use them for getting concessions.
Conflicting reports surround the death of an Iranian soldier who was killed at the border with Afghanistan, while Tehran has urged the Taliban for justice for those behind the incident.
In a statement on Wednesday, Iran’s new foreign ministry spokesman Naser Kanani said Mohammad Sayyad died in line of duty by unknown gunmen at the Milak border crossing in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan on Tuesday.
Other reports say that the young border guard was killed in clashes with the Taliban.
Citing local sources, Afghanistan’s Hasht-e-Subh Daily said he was killed when a skirmish broke out after Taliban forces entered Iran "following the killing and wounding of two Afghan boys by Islamic Republic border guards."
Kanani said an investigation has been launched into the case and more details will be made public as soon as they are verified.
Iran’s official news agency IRNA said that the border guard was killed in clashes with armed outlaws who wanted to enter the country from Afghanistan.
Meysam Barazandeh, the governor of the Iranian border town of Hirmand, rejected reports that two Iranian border guards have been also captured by the Taliban.
There have been some incidents at the border since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last year. An Iranian foreign ministry official in January said that the reason for clashes between Iranian forces and the Taliban was lack of professional conduct by the latter.
Israel says Iranian Revolutionary Guard conducted research to damage ships, gas stations and industrial plants in several countries including Britain, the US, France and Israel.
Defense minister Benny Gantz said on Wednesday that an IRGC cyber unit called “Shahid Kaveh” was involved in the alleged project.
Britain's Sky News reported similar allegations last year, saying the Iranian embassy in London had not responded to them.
"We know who they are, we target them and those who direct them. They are in our sights as we speak - and not just in the cyber-space," he said. "There is a variety of possible responses to cyber-attacks - in and outside of the cyber-domain."
Gantz also charged the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah of conducting a cyber operation designed to disrupt a UN peacekeeping mission on the border between the countries.
He said "Iranian security institutions in cooperation with Hezbollah (recently) launched a cyber operation with the aim of stealing materials about UNIFIL activities and deployment in the area, for Hezbollah's use".
"This is yet another direct attack by Iran and Hezbollah on Lebanese citizens and on Lebanon's stability," he told a cyber conference at Tel Aviv University, without elaborating.
Established in 1978, UNIFIL patrols Lebanon's southern border. It is charged with monitoring the ceasefire that ended the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
Iran confirmed a long prison sentence for French national Benjamin Briere on allegations of spying, as it began nuclear talks mediated by the European Union.
His Iranian Paris-based lawyer, Saied Dehghan, said Tuesday that an Iranian appeals court has upheld the sentence on charges of “spying” and “propaganda against the regime” and Briere was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison.
The appeals court said in its verdict that Brière is "an agent in the service of an enemy state," and mentioned “sympathy with the victims of the Ukrainian plane” [Flight 752 downed by Iran]”, “IT expertise", and "possession of more than one hard drive and mobile phone” as reasons behind the decision.
The airliner referred to in the verdict was shot down by two air-defense missiles fired by the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) on January 8, 2020, as it took off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport killing all 176 people onboard.
Briere’s other lawyer Philippe Valent, said his case was being "instrumentalized" by the Iranian authorities. Accusing Iran of holding him as a "hostage." He added, "It's shocking and dramatic."
“It is unacceptable that Benjamin Briere remains a hostage to negotiations on the part of a regime that persists in its desire to arbitrarily detain a French citizen and use him as a bargaining chip,” he added, urging “the French, American and British authorities to make the liberation of hostages a pre-condition for the resumption of [nuclear] negotiations.”
"Benjamin Brière has obviously not - nor has he ever - been given a fair trial before impartial judges. He was not given any right to defend himself, no access to the prosecution's case, no opportunity to prepare and present a defense before the judges of the Revolutionary Court," Valent said in a statement, adding that he would appeal. "The family of Benjamin Brière is now calling on the French authorities to take immediate steps to allow his repatriation".
On Tuesday, France's foreign ministry said that the sentence had no basis in fact and was "unacceptable".
His sister Blandine Brière told AFP that her brother was a "political hostage," saying that "It is clear that this is a useful political trial for Iran, which sends a message to the French government. We are nothing in the face of this, we feel like pawns in a diplomatic game."
Briere, a 36-year-old travel blogger, has been held in Iran since May 2020, when he was arrested after flying a recreational helicam -- a remote-controlled mini helicopter used to obtain aerial or motion images -- in a national park near the Turkmenistan-Iran border. He went on hunger strike at Valikabad prison in Mashhad in December to protest his detention conditions.
In the past decade, Iran's Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on unproven allegations of espionage and breach of security, in what human rights organizations have said is essentially hostage taking.
The sentence comes as indirect or "proximity" nuclear talks between Iran and the United States began Tuesday with negotiators in different parts of a hotel in Doha, Qatar.
Enrique Mora, the European Union official who chaired year-long talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA), is acting as a mediatorbetween the teams led by Rob Malley, the United States special envoy, and Ali Bagheri-Kani, a deputy Iranian foreign minister.
With the US-Iran talks beginning in Doha, G7 leaders Tuesday expressed support for “a diplomatic solution” as the “best way to restrict Iran’s nuclear program.”
In a communique from Elmau, Germany, the G7 (Group of Seven – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) placed the onus on Tehran to take “the opportunity to conclude a deal.” They said the G7 was committed to “working together, and with other international partners, to address the threat posed to international security by Iran’s nuclear escalation.”
The leaders also called on Iran “to stop all ballistic missile activities and proliferation inconsistent with UNSCR 2231 and other UNSC resolutions.” United Nations Security Resolution 2231 both endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal – the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) – and called on Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons…” Iran says none of its missile are designed for atomic weapons.
The G7 also condemned “the continued human rights violations and abuses in Iran.” They called on Iran “to end arbitrary arrest and detention of foreign and dual nationals for the purposes of political leverage.” Foreign governments and human rights organizations have accused Iran of detaining foreigners to secure concessions.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting during their visit to Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, on Wednesday.
Assistant to the Russian President for Foreign Policy Yuri Viktorovich Ushakov said on Tuesday that the meeting will take place on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the heads of state of the Caspian Sea littoral states.
This is Putin's first known trip abroad since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would return to Moscow Wednesday evening.
Raisi is also scheduled to hold separate meetings with his counterparts from the other three participating countries in the summit, namely Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan Republic.
The meeting of the foreign ministers of these countries kicked off on Tuesday to “review cooperation in the Caspian Sea and discuss the further collaboration modalities for the upcoming meeting of leaders of five Caspian littoral states.”
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, "The meeting, organized on the eve of the Fifth Caspian Summit, witnessed the signing of a historical Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea.”
Addressing the event, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, “We support Russia's recent proposal to develop and establish a structure of cooperation in the Caspian Sea. This initiative strengthens and systematizes the five-way cooperation in the Caspian Sea.”
