US Navy Veteran Leaves Iran Day After Scientist Returns to Tehran
US Navy veteran Michael White has been freed and left Iran nearly two years after his arrest, his mother said Thursday, following the US release of an Iranian scientist.
US Navy veteran Michael White has been freed and left Iran nearly two years after his arrest, his mother said Thursday, following the US release of an Iranian scientist.
"I am blessed to announce that the nightmare is over, and my son is safely on his way home," Joanne White said in a statement.
The release comes one day after an Iranian scientist, Cyrus Asgari, returned home. He was arrested during an academic visit in 2016 and accused of stealing trade secrets but was cleared last year by a US court.
US officials had insisted that Asgari was not part of a swap, an assertion sure to come into question with White's release.
White, who had served 13 years in the US Navy, was arrested in July 2018 in the northeastern city of Mashhad after visiting a woman whom he had reportedly met online.
He was sentenced the following year to at least 10 years in prison on charges that he insulted Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and posted anti-regime remarks on social media under a pseudonym.
In March, as Iran was being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, White had been transferred into the custody of Switzerland, which handles US interests in Tehran in the absence of diplomatic relations.
He was flown to the capital Tehran but US officials said that White had been told not to leave Iran.
In her statement, Joanne White gave few details on the release but thanked both the US and Swiss governments.
She also thanked Bill Richardson, a former US ambassador and governor who has often taken up high-profile cases of Americans detained overseas.
Richardson in a statement said he had met with senior Iranian officials including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to win White's release.
President Donald Trump's administration, which has been pushing a "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran that includes sweeping sanctions, in the past has resented efforts by Richardson, a former Democratic presidential candidate.
Photo: Twitter
Plane Carrying Iran Scientist Jailed in US Has Taken Off: Zarif
Iran's foreign minister said Tuesday that a plane had taken off from the United States carrying scientist Sirous Asgari after his apparent release from a US prison.
Iran's foreign minister said Tuesday that a plane had taken off from the United States carrying scientist Sirous Asgari after his apparent release from a US prison.
"Good news, a plane carrying Dr. Sirous Asgari has taken off from America. Congratulations to his wife and family," Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in a post on his Instagram account.
Asgari was accused by a US court in 2016 of stealing trade secrets while on an academic visit to Ohio, but the 59-year-old scientist from Tehran's Sharif University of Technology was acquitted in November.
The academic told British newspaper The Guardian in March that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was keeping him in a detention centre in Louisiana without basic sanitation and refusing to let him return to Iran despite his exoneration.
The US agency database still listed Asgari as being detained in the state of Mississippi.
The State Department did not immediately respond to AFP's request to comment on his apparent release.
On Monday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi had said Asgari's case was closed and that he was likely to return to the Islamic republic within two or three days.
Both Iran and the United States hold a number of each other's nationals and they have recently called for them to be released amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Iran is battling what is the Middle East's deadliest outbreak of the virus, while the US has reported the highest total number of deaths worldwide from the disease.
Iran is holding at least five Americans and the US has 19 Iranians in detention, according to a list compiled by AFP based on official statements and media reports.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington escalated in 2018, after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a landmark nuclear agreement and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
The two have at times swapped prisoners despite having no formal diplomatic relations.
In December, Iran freed Xiyue Wang, a US academic, in exchange for scientist Massoud Soleimani and said it was open to further swaps.
Americans and dual nationals currently known to be held by Iran include US Navy veteran Michael R. White, Siamak Namazi along with his father Baquer, Morad Tahbaz, Gholam Reza Shahini, and Karan Vafadari.
Asgari is one of the 19 held by the US, most of them dual nationals and charged with evading sanctions by either exporting goods to Iran or using the US financial system.
Photo: IRNA
Iran Says Scientist Jailed in US to Return in Days
Tehran said Monday that scientist Sirous Asgari, one of more than a dozen Iranians behind bars in the United States, is set to return to Iran within days.
By Amir Havasi
Tehran said Monday that scientist Sirous Asgari, one of more than a dozen Iranians behind bars in the United States, is set to return to Iran within days.
Asgari was accused by a US court in 2016 of stealing trade secrets while on an academic visit to Ohio.
But the 59-year-old scientist from Tehran's Sharif University of Technology was acquitted in November.
The academic told British newspaper The Guardian in March that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was keeping him in a detention centre in Louisiana without basic sanitation and refusing to let him return to Iran despite his exoneration.
"Dr. Sirous Asgari's case has been closed in America and he will probably return to the country in the next two or three days," said Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi.
"That is, if no issues or obstacles come up," he said, quoted by semi-official news agency ISNA.
Iran's foreign ministry said last month that Asgari had contracted the novel coronavirus while in US custody.
If he returns to Iran, the scientist would become one of the few detainees held by either side not to have been released in a prisoner exchange.
Both Iran and the United States hold a number of each other's nationals and they have recently called for them to be released amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Iran is battling what is the Middle East's deadliest outbreak of the virus, while the US has reported the highest total number of deaths worldwide from the disease.
Prisoner Swaps
Iran is holding at least five Americans and the US has 19 Iranians in detention, according to a list compiled by AFP based on official statements and media reports.
Tensions between the two arch enemies escalated in 2018, after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a landmark nuclear agreement and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran's economy.
Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said last month that Tehran had offered "some time ago" to exchange all Iranian and US prisoners but was waiting for a response from the US.
Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of US homeland security, responded mockingly by saying Iran should "send a charter plane over" and return its nationals.
Mousavi hit back on Twitter by saying the world "is watching your action, not your word.”
The Islamic republic in December freed Xiyue Wang, a US academic, in exchange for scientist Massoud Soleimani and said it was open to further swaps.
It has also said it has released more than 100,000 inmates, including 1,000 foreigners, to ease the pressure on Iran's prison system during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Americans and dual nationals currently known to be held by Iran include US Navy veteran Michael R. White, Siamak Namazi along with his father Baquer, Morad Tahbaz, Gholam Reza Shahini, and Karan Vafadari.
Asgari is one of the 19 held by the US, most of them dual nationals and charged with evading sanctions by either exporting goods to Iran or using the US financial system.
Long-time foes Iran and the United States have appeared to come to the brink of a direct conflict twice in the past year.
The most recent case was in January when Iran fired a barrage of missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq in retaliation for a US drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian general.
Trump refrained from taking any military action in response, however.
Iran on Monday also vowed to keep sending shipments of fuel to Venezuela in defiance of US threats.
The US has imposed unilateral sanctions aimed at ending oil exports by both Iran and Venezuela, both major crude producers.
"If Venezuela demands new shipments, we will export more to this country and any other who requires our shipments," Mousavi said.
It comes days after Iranian tankers carrying much-needed petrol arrived in Venezuela.
Photo: IRNA
