Iran’s longest-serving American prisoner has made an emotional plea to US President Joe Biden to put the “freedom of innocent Americans above politics” and step up efforts to secure their release, in an unprecedented interview with CNN from inside Iran’s notorious Evin Prison.
“I remain deeply concerned that the White House simply does not appreciate how dire our situation has become,” said Siamak Namazi, speaking by phone with Christiane Amanpour of the CNN .
With an occasional crack in her voice, Namazi added, “the very fact that I chose to take that risk and appear on CNN from Evin Prison should show you how dire my situation has become by this time.”
Namazi, 51, was arrested in 2015 while on a business trip to Iran, in what the UN described as “arbitrary detention”. He was accused of having “relations with a hostile state”, referring to the US, where Namazi holds dual Iranian-American citizenship.
The US has accused Iran of taking Namazi and other foreigners trapped in Iran “hostage”.
Addressing Biden directly, he said: “I beg you, sir, to put the lives and freedom of innocent Americans above all politics involved and just do whatever is necessary to end this nightmare and bring us home.” .
Namazi is one of three US citizens held at Tehran’s Evin Prison, known for its long history of human rights abuses and seen as an emblem of authoritarian rule in Iran.
The other two American-Iranian prisoners at Evin Prison are Emad Sharghi, a businessman, and Morad Tahbaz, a 66-year-old environmentalist. Both were first arrested in 2018.
Last June, The New York Times published an op-ed by Namazi criticizing Biden’s attempt to rescue American prisoners in Iran as having “failed spectacularly”.
He went on a seven-day hunger strike in January and wrote an open letter to Biden asking him to keep his promise to bring them home.
In the interview with CNN on Thursday, Namazi accused the former administration of US President Barack Obama of “abandoning” him in the 2016 negotiations, when the administration secured the release of four other US prisoners held in Iran – including Jason Rezaian of Iran. Washington Post – after signing the historic 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
“When I’m in that closet-sized room, alone, there’s one thing I hold true: the US government is fighting to free me,” he told the magazine. CNN reflecting on the first few weeks of his detention.
He claimed former Secretary of State John Kerry had promised to release him in “weeks”.
“All I know is that I was abandoned. I know I was promised that the US government would release me weeks later,” he said. “I am perpetually three weeks away from a freedom that is permanently elusive.”
A White House spokesman on Thursday condemned Iran’s detention of US prisoners, saying it was inhumane and contrary to international norms.
The spokesperson said the US is committed to ensuring the freedom of US citizens wrongfully detained abroad and is in regular contact with Namazi’s family.
The Iranian government did not respond to a request for comment from the CNN until the time of publication.
The US and other Western countries regularly accuse Tehran of keeping dual nationals as political pawns in dealings with the West.
Last March, British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released after six years of detention in Iran.
That came as the UK settled a decades-old £400m debt to Iran – Tehran denied it was linked to the release of prisoners.
Hopes for the release of American-Iranian prisoners have fizzled out in recent months as talks between Tehran and Washington on reviving the nuclear deal – which former President Donald Trump pulled out of in 2018 – stalled.
Under the deal, Iran curbed its uranium enrichment program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Negotiating teams from Tehran and Washington have not met for indirect multilateral talks in nearly a year.
A bloody regime crackdown on protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last year also appears to have dealt a crippling blow to the talks.
Last October, Namazi’s father, Baquer Namazi, 85, was allowed to leave Iran on medical grounds after the government lifted his years-old travel ban.
Baquer Namazi is a former UNICEF employee who suffers from a heart condition. Father and son were accused of collaborating with the US government in 2015.
Siamak Namazi was given a 10-day leave of absence to see his father before the 85-year-old returned to the United States.
“They allowed him to leave, join the rest of our family and receive the necessary care for his life-threatening condition,” Siamak Namazi told CNN .
“I just hope they summon the same spirit of humanity to do whatever is necessary on their part, so that the rest of us – Morad, Emad and I – can also come together with our families and start putting this dark past behind us. us.”
Addressing Biden directly, he said: “I beg you, sir, to put the lives and freedom of innocent Americans above all politics involved and just do whatever is necessary to end this nightmare and bring us home.” .
After the interview, Siamak Namazi’s father and brother, as well as family members of the other detainees, echoed his call for Biden to meet with them.
“There is no substitute for hearing firsthand what we’ve been through,” Baquer Namazi said in his first public comments since his release from Iran.
He said he was “very, very proud” of his son, but at the same time, he was “very, very sad” and “very angry that there is a possibility to end this misery and politics to prevail over humanism”.
Babak Namazi said his brother’s risky decision to speak with the CNN “makes me proud” and also “breaks my heart”.
“He came up with this incredibly brave decision just a few days ago out of desperation,” said Babak Namazi. “They were worried. There’s no other way to say it. I can’t imagine what he must have gone through and how desperate he is feeling.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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