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(TEHRAN, Iran) — The plane carrying five American citizens freed as part of a deal between the U.S. and Iran has now landed back home in the United States.

The repatriated Americans include Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz, as well as two others who asked that their identity not be made public. All five have been designated as wrongfully detained by the U.S. government.

Tahbaz’s wife, Vida, and Namazi’s mother, Effie, were also allowed to leave Iran in the arrangement, according to a U.S. official. Unlike the other five, they had not been jailed by the Iranian regime but had previously been barred from leaving the country.

In a statement on Monday, President Joe Biden said, “Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home.”

“Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi, and two citizens who wish to remain private will soon be reunited with their loved ones — after enduring years of agony, uncertainty, and suffering,” he said. “I am grateful to our partners at home and abroad for their tireless efforts to help us achieve this outcome, including the Governments of Qatar, Oman, Switzerland, and South Korea.

“I give special thanks to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, and to the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, both of whom helped facilitate this agreement over many months of difficult and principled American diplomacy,” he said.

Secretary of State Blinken, speaking in New York, said that he had the “great pleasure” of having an “emotional conversation” with the Americans after they landed in Doha, saying it was a good reminder of the “human element that’s at the heart of everything we do.”

He also noted that American Bob Levinson still remains unaccounted for more than 16 years after what Blinken said was his abduction in Iran.

“We are also thinking of Bob Levinson who … is presumed to be deceased. Bob’s legacy lives on powerfully in the Levinson Act which is giving us new and powerful tools to crack down and deter the practice of taking Americans unlawfully to try to turn them into political pawns, and to abuse the international system in that way,” he said.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry first announced the U.S. nationals would be imminently released early Monday morning, fulfilling a deal struck between Washington and Tehran last month, where the U.S. promised to grant clemency to five Iranians and to facilitate Iran’s access to roughly $6 billion in frozen oil revenue on the condition the money be put toward humanitarian purposes.

The seven will be transported via a Qatari aircraft to Doha. From there, U.S. officials say they plan to depart “as quickly as possible” for the Washington, D.C., area, where they will be reunited with their families and the Department of Defense will be on hand to assist families “that might request help for their recovery and integration to normal life.”

The five Iranians involved in the trade have either been charged with or convicted of nonviolent offenses. Two do not have legal standing to stay in the U.S. and will be transported by U.S. Marshals Service to Doha and then travel on to Iran.

Two more are lawful permanent residents of the U.S., and one is a dual Iranian American citizen. Administration officials did not say whether they would remain the U.S.

The five detained Americans all served time in Iran’s notorious Evin prison but were placed on house arrest when Tehran and Washington reached a deal-in-principle.

Namazi, 51, is an oil executive and an Iranian-American dual nationalist. He was first detained in 2015 and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison after a conviction on “collaboration with a hostile government” for his ties to the United States.

Shargi, a 58-year-old businessman, was detained without explanation in 2018 and released in 2019 before he was re-arrested in 2020 and handed down a 10-year sentence on an espionage charge.

Tahbaz, 67, is an Iranian-American conservationist who also holds British citizenship. He was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Blinken signed off on a broad sanctions waiver last week, clearing the way for international banks to transfer the roughly $6 billion in Iran oil revenue in exchange for Iran’s release of the five detained American citizens.

The $6 billion is coming from a restricted account in South Korea, where it was effectively frozen when the U.S. reinstated sanctions against Tehran after former President Donald Trump left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program and will be transferred to Qatar with restrictions on how Iran can spend the funds.

Iran expected to begin receiving its frozen assets on Monday, Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said, adding that “active foreign policy” had led to the funds being unblocked.

“Today this asset will be delivered,” Kanaani said. “It will be invested where needed.”

Republicans blasted the planned swap in the days after the initial announcement.

“The Americans held by Iran are innocent hostages who must be released immediately and unconditionally. However, I remain deeply concerned that the administration’s decision to waive sanctions to facilitate the transfer of $6 billion in funds for Iran, the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism, creates a direct incentive for America’s adversaries to conduct future hostage-taking,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul said in a statement.

But National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby insisted during a press briefing Wednesday that “Iran will be getting no sanctions relief.”

“It’s Iranian money that had been established in these accounts to allow some trade from foreign countries on things like Iranian oil. … It’s not a blank check. They don’t get to spend it anyway they want. It’s not $6 billion all at once. They will have to make a request for withdrawals for humanitarian purposes only,” he said, adding that there will be “sufficient oversight to make sure that the request is valid.”

The Iranian people will be the beneficiaries of the funds, not the regime, according to Kirby.

Pressed on why the $6 billion needed to be released in addition to the five Iranian prisoners, Kirby said, “This is the deal we were able to strike to secure the release of five Americans.”

“We’re comfortable in the parameters of this deal. I’ve heard the critics that somehow they’re getting the better end of it. Ask the families of those five Americans who’s getting the better end of it and I think you’d get a different answer,” he said.

When asked about Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s claim that the money is “fungible,” Kirby said, “He’s wrong. He’s just flat-out wrong.”

Kirby said the funds in this agreement are “not a payment of any kind” and “not ransom” to secure the release of the Americans, responding to Republican complaints.

“Expect this money to free up revenues internally for more foreign aggression and domestic suppression. And certainly, at over one billion dollars per hostage and a jailed Iranian national” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Expect Tehran to continue if not step up its hostage taking.”

“As Chairman of the [Republican Study Committee], we will use all legislative options to reverse this agreement and prevent further ransom payments and sanctions relief to Iran,” Rep. Kevin Hern tweeted Tuesday.

Kanaani, the Iranian spokesperson, said only two of the Iranians who were expected to be released from American prisons were willing to return to Iran.

“Two of [Iranian] citizens will willingly return to Iran based, one person joins his family in a third country, and the other two citizens want to stay in America,” Kanaani said.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(TEHRAN, Iran)– Five American citizens freed as part of a deal between the U.S. and Iran were flown out of the country and arrived in Doha, Qatar, Monday before boarding a flight to the U.S. later in the day.

The Americans being repatriated include Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz, as well as two others who asked that their identity not be made public. All five have been designated as wrongfully detained by U.S. government.

Tahbaz’s wife, Vida, and Namazi’s mother, Effie, were also allowed to leave Iran in the arrangement, according to a U.S. official. Unlike the other five, they had not been jailed by the Iranian regime but had previously been barred from leaving the country.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said, “Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home.”

“Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi, and two citizens who wish to remain private will soon be reunited with their loved ones — after enduring years of agony, uncertainty, and suffering,” he said. “I am grateful to our partners at home and abroad for their tireless efforts to help us achieve this outcome, including the Governments of Qatar, Oman, Switzerland, and South Korea.

“I give special thanks to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, and to the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, both of whom helped facilitate this agreement over many months of difficult and principled American diplomacy,” he said.

Secretary of State Blinken, speaking in New York, said that he had the “great pleasure” of having an “emotional conversation” with the Americans after they landed in Doha, saying it was a good reminder of the “human element that’s at the heart of everything we do.”

He also noted that American Bob Levinson still remains unaccounted for more than 16 years after what Blinken said was his abduction in Iran.

“We are also thinking of Bob Levinson who … is presumed to be deceased. Bob’s legacy lives on powerfully in the Levinson Act which is giving us new and powerful tools to crack down and deter the practice of taking Americans unlawfully to try to turn them into political pawns, and to abuse the international system in that way,” he said.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry first announced the U.S. nationals would be imminently released early Monday morning, fulfilling a deal struck between Washington and Tehran last month, where the U.S. promised to grant clemency to five Iranians and to facilitate Iran’s access to roughly $6 billion in frozen oil revenue on the condition the money be put toward humanitarian purposes.

The seven will be transported via a Qatari aircraft to Doha. From there, U.S. officials say they plan to depart “as quickly as possible” for the Washington, D.C., area, where they will be reunited with their families and the Department of Defense will be on hand to assist families “that might request help for their recovery and integration to normal life.”

The five Iranians involved in the trade have either been charged with or convicted of nonviolent offenses. Two do not have legal standing to stay in the U.S. and will be transported by U.S. Marshals Service to Doha and then travel on to Iran.

Two more are lawful permanent residents of the U.S., and one is a dual Iranian American citizen. Administration officials did not say whether they would remain the U.S.

The five detained Americans all served time in Iran’s notorious Evin prison but were placed on house arrest when Tehran and Washington reached a deal-in-principle.

Namazi, 51, is an oil executive and an Iranian-American dual nationalist. He was first detained in 2015 and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison after a conviction on “collaboration with a hostile government” for his ties to the United States.

Shargi, a 58-year-old businessman, was detained without explanation in 2018 and released in 2019 before he was re-arrested in 2020 and handed down a 10-year sentence on an espionage charge.

Tahbaz, 67, is an Iranian-American conservationist who also holds British citizenship. He was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Blinken signed off on a broad sanctions waiver last week, clearing the way for international banks to transfer the roughly $6 billion in Iran oil revenue in exchange for Iran’s release of the five detained American citizens.

The $6 billion is coming from a restricted account in South Korea, where it was effectively frozen when the U.S. reinstated sanctions against Tehran after former President Donald Trump left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program and will be transferred to Qatar with restrictions on how Iran can spend the funds.

Iran expected to begin receiving its frozen assets on Monday, Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said, adding that “active foreign policy” had led to the funds being unblocked.

“Today this asset will be delivered,” Kanaani said. “It will be invested where needed.”

Republicans blasted the planned swap in the days after the initial announcement.

“The Americans held by Iran are innocent hostages who must be released immediately and unconditionally. However, I remain deeply concerned that the administration’s decision to waive sanctions to facilitate the transfer of $6 billion in funds for Iran, the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism, creates a direct incentive for America’s adversaries to conduct future hostage-taking,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul said in a statement.

But National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby insisted during a press briefing Wednesday that “Iran will be getting no sanctions relief.”

“It’s Iranian money that had been established in these accounts to allow some trade from foreign countries on things like Iranian oil. … It’s not a blank check. They don’t get to spend it anyway they want. It’s not $6 billion all at once. They will have to make a request for withdrawals for humanitarian purposes only,” he said, adding that there will be “sufficient oversight to make sure that the request is valid.”

The Iranian people will be the beneficiaries of the funds, not the regime, according to Kirby.

Pressed on why the $6 billion needed to be released in addition to the five Iranian prisoners, Kirby said, “This is the deal we were able to strike to secure the release of five Americans.”

“We’re comfortable in the parameters of this deal. I’ve heard the critics that somehow they’re getting the better end of it. Ask the families of those five Americans who’s getting the better end of it and I think you’d get a different answer,” he said.

When asked about Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s claim that the money is “fungible,” Kirby said, “He’s wrong. He’s just flat-out wrong.”

Kirby said the funds in this agreement are “not a payment of any kind” and “not ransom” to secure the release of the Americans, responding to Republican complaints.

“Expect this money to free up revenues internally for more foreign aggression and domestic suppression. And certainly, at over one billion dollars per hostage and a jailed Iranian national” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Expect Tehran to continue if not step up its hostage taking.”

“As Chairman of the [Republican Study Committee], we will use all legislative options to reverse this agreement and prevent further ransom payments and sanctions relief to Iran,” Rep. Kevin Hern tweeted Tuesday.

Kanaani, the Iranian spokesperson, said only two of the Iranians who were expected to be released from American prisons were willing to return to Iran.

“Two of [Iranian] citizens will willingly return to Iran based, one person joins his family in a third country, and the other two citizens want to stay in America,” Kanaani said.

ABC News’ Benjamin Gittleson contributed to this report.

 

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(TEHRAN, Iran)–

Five American citizens freed as part of a deal between the U.S. and Iran were flown out of the country and landed in Doha, Qatar, Monday.

Later Monday, they will be flown back to the U.S.

The Americans being repatriated include Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz, as well as two others who asked that their identity not be made public. All five have been designated as wrongfully detained by U.S. government.

Tahbaz’s wife, Vida, and Namazi’s mother, Effie, were also allowed to leave Iran in the arrangement, according to a U.S. official. Unlike the other five, they had not been jailed by the Iranian regime but had previously been barred from leaving the country.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said, “Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home.”

“Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi, and two citizens who wish to remain private will soon be reunited with their loved ones — after enduring years of agony, uncertainty, and suffering,” he said. “I am grateful to our partners at home and abroad for their tireless efforts to help us achieve this outcome, including the Governments of Qatar, Oman, Switzerland, and South Korea.

“I give special thanks to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, and to the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, both of whom helped facilitate this agreement over many months of difficult and principled American diplomacy,” he said.

Secretary of State Blinken, speaking in New York, said that he had the “great pleasure” of having an “emotional conversation” with the Americans after they landed in Doha, saying it was a good reminder of the “human element that’s at the heart of everything we do.”

He also noted that American Bob Levinson still remains unaccounted for more than 16 years after what Blinken said was his abduction in Iran.

“We are also thinking of Bob Levinson who … is presumed to be deceased. Bob’s legacy lives on powerfully in the Levinson Act which is giving us new and powerful tools to crack down and deter the practice of taking Americans unlawfully to try to turn them into political pawns, and to abuse the international system in that way,” he said.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry first announced the U.S. nationals would be imminently released early Monday morning, fulfilling a deal struck between Washington and Tehran last month, where the U.S. promised to grant clemency to five Iranians and to facilitate Iran’s access to roughly $6 billion in frozen oil revenue on the condition the money be put toward humanitarian purposes.

The seven will be transported via a Qatari aircraft to Doha. From there, U.S. officials say they plan to depart “as quickly as possible” for the Washington, D.C., area, where they will be reunited with their families and the Department of Defense will be on hand to assist families “that might request help for their recovery and integration to normal life.”

The five Iranians involved in the trade have either been charged with or convicted of nonviolent offenses. Two do not have legal standing to stay in the U.S. and will be transported by U.S. Marshals Service to Doha and then travel on to Iran.

Two more are lawful permanent residents of the U.S., and one is a dual Iranian American citizen. Administration officials did not say whether they would remain the U.S.

The five detained Americans all served time in Iran’s notorious Evin prison but were placed on house arrest when Tehran and Washington reached a deal-in-principle.

Namazi, 51, is an oil executive and an Iranian-American dual nationalist. He was first detained in 2015 and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison after a conviction on “collaboration with a hostile government” for his ties to the United States.

Shargi, a 58-year-old businessman, was detained without explanation in 2018 and released in 2019 before he was re-arrested in 2020 and handed down a 10-year sentence on an espionage charge.

Tahbaz, 67, is an Iranian-American conservationist who also holds British citizenship. He was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on a blanket waiver of U.S. sanctions that paved the way for international banks to allow the transfer of roughly $6 billion in Iran oil revenue in exchange for Iran’s release of the five detained American citizens.

The $6 billion is coming from a restricted account in South Korea, where it was effectively frozen when the U.S. reinstated sanctions against Tehran after former President Donald Trump left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program and will be transferred to Qatar with restrictions on how Iran can spend the funds.

Iran expected to begin receiving its frozen assets on Monday, Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said, adding that “active foreign policy” had led to the funds being unblocked.

“Today this asset will be delivered,” Kanaani said. “It will be invested where needed.”

Republicans blasted the planned swap in the days after the initial announcement.

“The Americans held by Iran are innocent hostages who must be released immediately and unconditionally. However, I remain deeply concerned that the administration’s decision to waive sanctions to facilitate the transfer of $6 billion in funds for Iran, the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism, creates a direct incentive for America’s adversaries to conduct future hostage-taking,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul said in a statement.

But National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby insisted during a press briefing Wednesday that “Iran will be getting no sanctions relief.”

“It’s Iranian money that had been established in these accounts to allow some trade from foreign countries on things like Iranian oil. … It’s not a blank check. They don’t get to spend it anyway they want. It’s not $6 billion all at once. They will have to make a request for withdrawals for humanitarian purposes only,” he said, adding that there will be “sufficient oversight to make sure that the request is valid.”

The Iranian people will be the beneficiaries of the funds, not the regime, according to Kirby.

Pressed on why the $6 billion needed to be released in addition to the five Iranian prisoners, Kirby said, “This is the deal we were able to strike to secure the release of five Americans.”

“We’re comfortable in the parameters of this deal. I’ve heard the critics that somehow they’re getting the better end of it. Ask the families of those five Americans who’s getting the better end of it and I think you’d get a different answer,” he said.

When asked about Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s claim that the money is “fungible,” Kirby said, “He’s wrong. He’s just flat-out wrong.”

Kirby said the funds in this agreement are “not a payment of any kind” and “not ransom” to secure the release of the Americans, responding to Republican complaints.

“As Chairman of the [Republican Study Committee], we will use all legislative options to reverse this agreement and prevent further ransom payments and sanctions relief to Iran,” Rep. Kevin Hern tweeted Tuesday.

Kanaani, the Iranian spokesperson, said only two of the Iranians who were expected to be released from American prisons were willing to return to Iran.

“Two of [Iranian] citizens will willingly return to Iran based, one person joins his family in a third country, and the other two citizens want to stay in America,” Kanaani said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

 

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(TEHRAN, Iran)– The U.S. has received confirmation that five American citizens freed as part of a deal between the U.S. and Iran are now on a plane headed out of the country to Doha, Qatar, a senior Biden administration official said Monday.

Later Monday, they will be flown back to the U.S.

The Americans being repatriated include Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz, as well as two others who asked that their identity not be made public. All five have been designated as wrongfully detained by U.S. government.

Tahbaz’s wife, Vida, and Namazi’s mother, Effie, were also allowed to leave Iran in the arrangement, according to a U.S. official. Unlike the other five, they had not been jailed by the Iranian regime but had previously been barred from leaving the country.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry first announced the U.S. nationals would be imminently released early Monday morning, fulfilling a deal struck between Washington and Tehran last month, where the U.S. promised to grant clemency to five Iranians and to facilitate Iran’s access to roughly $6 billion in frozen oil revenue on the condition the money be put toward humanitarian purposes.

The seven will be transported via a Qatari aircraft to Doha. From there, U.S. officials say they plan to depart “as quickly as possible” for the Washington, D.C., area, where they will be reunited with their families and the Department of Defense will be on hand to assist families “that might request help for their recovery and integration to normal life.”

The five Iranians involved in the trade have either been charged with or convicted of nonviolent offenses. Two do not have legal standing to stay in the U.S. and will be transported by U.S. Marshals Service to Doha and then travel on to Iran.

Two more are lawful permanent residents of the U.S., and one is a dual Iranian American citizen. Administration officials did not say whether they would remain the U.S.

The five detained Americans all served time in Iran’s notorious Evin prison but were placed on house arrest when Tehran and Washington reached a deal-in-principle.

Namazi, 51, is an oil executive and an Iranian-American dual nationalist. He was first detained in 2015 and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison after a conviction on “collaboration with a hostile government” for his ties to the United States.

Shargi, a 58-year-old businessman, was detained without explanation in 2018 and released in 2019 before he was re-arrested in 2020 and handed down a 10-year sentence on an espionage charge.

Tahbaz, 67, is an Iranian-American conservationist who also holds British citizenship. He was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on a blanket waiver of U.S. sanctions that paved the way for international banks to allow the transfer of roughly $6 billion in Iran oil revenue in exchange for Iran’s release of the five detained American citizens.

The $6 billion is coming from a restricted account in South Korea, where it was effectively frozen when the U.S. reinstated sanctions against Tehran after former President Donald Trump left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program and will be transferred to Qatar with restrictions on how Iran can spend the funds.

Iran expected to begin receiving its frozen assets on Monday, Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said, adding that “active foreign policy” had led to the funds being unblocked.

“Today this asset will be delivered,” Kanaani said. “It will be invested where needed.”

Republicans blasted the planned swap in the days after the initial announcement.

“The Americans held by Iran are innocent hostages who must be released immediately and unconditionally. However, I remain deeply concerned that the administration’s decision to waive sanctions to facilitate the transfer of $6 billion in funds for Iran, the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism, creates a direct incentive for America’s adversaries to conduct future hostage-taking,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul said in a statement.

But National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby insisted during a press briefing Wednesday that “Iran will be getting no sanctions relief.”

“It’s Iranian money that had been established in these accounts to allow some trade from foreign countries on things like Iranian oil. … It’s not a blank check. They don’t get to spend it anyway they want. It’s not $6 billion all at once. They will have to make a request for withdrawals for humanitarian purposes only,” he said, adding that there will be “sufficient oversight to make sure that the request is valid.”

The Iranian people will be the beneficiaries of the funds, not the regime, according to Kirby.

Pressed on why the $6 billion needed to be released in addition to the five Iranian prisoners, Kirby said, “This is the deal we were able to strike to secure the release of five Americans.”

“We’re comfortable in the parameters of this deal. I’ve heard the critics that somehow they’re getting the better end of it. Ask the families of those five Americans who’s getting the better end of it and I think you’d get a different answer,” he said.

When asked about Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s claim that the money is “fungible,” Kirby said, “He’s wrong. He’s just flat-out wrong.”

Kirby said the funds in this agreement are “not a payment of any kind” and “not ransom” to secure the release of the Americans, responding to Republican complaints.

“As Chairman of the [Republican Study Committee], we will use all legislative options to reverse this agreement and prevent further ransom payments and sanctions relief to Iran,” Rep. Kevin Hern tweeted Tuesday.

Kanaani, the Iranian spokesperson, said only two of the Iranians who were expected to be released from American prisons were willing to return to Iran.

“Two of [Iranian] citizens will willingly return to Iran based, one person joins his family in a third country, and the other two citizens want to stay in America,” Kanaani said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(TEHRAN, Iran) — Five Americans detained in Iran will be freed on Monday as part of a prisoner swap, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

The detained U.S. citizens being repatriated include Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz, as well as two others who asked that their identity not be made public.

Namazi, 51, is an oil executive and an Iranian-American dual nationalist. He was first detained in 2015 and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison after a conviction on “collaboration with a hostile government” for his ties to the United States.

Shargi, a 58-year-old businessman, was detained without explanation in 2018 and released in 2019 before he was re-arrested in 2020 and handed down a 10-year sentence on an espionage charge.

Tahbaz, 67, is an Iranian-American conservationist who also holds British citizenship. He was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on a blanket waiver of U.S. sanctions that paved the way for international banks to allow the transfer of roughly $6 billion in Iran oil revenue in exchange for Iran’s release of the five detained American citizens.

The $6 billion is coming from a restricted account in South Korea, where it was effectively frozen when the U.S. reinstated sanctions against Tehran after former President Donald Trump left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program and will be transferred to Qatar with restrictions on how Iran can spend the funds.

Iran expects to begin receiving its frozen assets on Monday, Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said, adding that “active foreign policy” had led to the funds being unblocked.

“Today this asset will be delivered,” Kanaani said. “It will be invested where needed.”

Five Iranian detainees will also be released from American prisons as part of the deal, Kanaani said.

Republicans blasted the planned swap in the days after the initial announcement.

“The Americans held by Iran are innocent hostages who must be released immediately and unconditionally. However, I remain deeply concerned that the administration’s decision to waive sanctions to facilitate the transfer of $6 billion in funds for Iran, the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism, creates a direct incentive for America’s adversaries to conduct future hostage-taking,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul said in a statement.

But National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby insisted during a press briefing Wednesday that “Iran will be getting no sanctions relief.”

“It’s Iranian money that had been established in these accounts to allow some trade from foreign countries on things like Iranian oil. … It’s not a blank check. They don’t get to spend it anyway they want. It’s not $6 billion all at once. They will have to make a request for withdrawals for humanitarian purposes only,” he said, adding that there will be “sufficient oversight to make sure that the request is valid.”

The Iranian people will be the beneficiaries of the funds, not the regime, according to Kirby.

Pressed on why the $6 billion needed to be released in addition to the five Iranian prisoners, Kirby said, “This is the deal we were able to strike to secure the release of five Americans.”

“We’re comfortable in the parameters of this deal. I’ve heard the critics that somehow they’re getting the better end of it. Ask the families of those five Americans who’s getting the better end of it and I think you’d get a different answer,” he said.

When asked about Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s claim that the money is “fungible,” Kirby said, “He’s wrong. He’s just flat-out wrong.”

Kirby said the funds in this agreement are “not a payment of any kind” and “not ransom” to secure the release of the Americans, responding to Republican complaints.

“As Chairman of the [Republican Study Committee], we will use all legislative options to reverse this agreement and prevent further ransom payments and sanctions relief to Iran,” Rep. Kevin Hern tweeted Tuesday.

Kanaani, the Iranian spokesperson, said only two of the Iranians who were expected to be released from American prisons were willing to return to Iran.

“Two of [Iranian] citizens will willingly return to Iran based, one person joins his family in a third country, and the other two citizens want to stay in America,” Kanaani said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The U.N. World Food Program (WFP), the largest anti-hunger initiative around the globe, is grappling with the worst funding shortage in its 60-year history and “we are in a desperate situation,” Executive Director Cindy McCain said on Sunday.

“It’s a combination of things — it’s COVID, it’s climate change, it’s conflict and also the cost of being able to do business,” McCain told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl about the reasons behind the lack of money. “Those things combined and, of course, a world that has kind of grown tired of all this. There’s a great malaise right now within countries about foreign aid and giving.”

“The bottom line is those that are going to suffer [are] those who can’t afford to,” McCain said.

In September, the WFP said it “has been struggling to meet the global need for food assistance …. And for the first time ever, WFP has seen contributions decreasing while needs steadily increase.” The organization has already had to make “significant cuts in hot spots such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Jordan, Palestine, South Sudan, Somalia, and Syria.”

McCain warned on “This Week” that in Afghanistan, for example, the food program doesn’t “have enough money to even get through October.”

The WFP has been providing crucial services to the needy in the country, which was taken over in 2021 by the Taliban, who then imposed a wave of restrictions.

“Unless we can build up some funding for Afghanistan, we’ll have to pull it completely out,” McCain said.

Emphasizing the urgency, she said, “Right now, women can’t work. They can’t hold jobs of any kind. And in the case of WFP, we’ve been feeding women, feeding women and children. And if we have to pull out, starvation and famine is going to be the result of this.”

Karl asked, “Who’s not giving money that used to give money? What’s happened?”

McCain said other international conflicts had, in a way, overshadowed the broader needs of the hungry around the world at the same time that voters have become warier of sending money overseas.

“Ukraine, for better or worse has sucked the oxygen out of the room. And I — we certainly understand the need to support Ukraine. But there’s other hot spots in the world that are deeply and as much desperate as Ukraine is,” McCain said.

“So we have to make sure that we remind the world the importance of taking a look around the globe,” she continued. “But people are talking to their parliaments, their parliaments are saying no, their constituents are saying no. And we are facing some of the same things here in the United States.”

There were national security implications to supporting at-risk communities abroad, McCain said: “The terrorist groups are feeding people. And it’s primarily a lot of the stuff they steal from us.”

“We have to pay attention to it because we’re either going to feed them now or fight them later. And there’s no way about this. And … as a human being and a humanitarian, we cannot turn our backs on this,” McCain said. “We can’t. If we don’t do it, who will?”

McCain, widow of late Arizona Sen. John McCain, said her husband “would be furious” at the current state of affairs.

“I know he’d be traveling the world to make sure that people got the message and understood the importance and the desperation of the situation we’re in,” she said.

Cindy McCain, a Republican, has been vocal about her critical views of former President Donald Trump. But asked by Karl about what she thought would be the outcome if he won the 2024 election, she declined to answer specifically, citing her current work with the apolitical WFP.

Still, she said, “We have to consider what’s at stake and why and the influence and impact a single human being can have on this situation.”

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(TEHRAN) — Iranian authorities detained the father of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who died in police custody last year, as he left his home to visit his daughter’s grave on the first anniversary of her death, human rights observers said.

A few hours later, Amjad Amini was taken home by security guards and has been under house arrest, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said Saturday.

Mahsa Amini died in a hospital on Sept. 16, 2022, due to injuries sustained during her custody. She had been arrested by the Islamic Republic’s hijab police, known as the morality police, in Tehran allegedly for not fully complying with the compulsory hijab rules of the country.

Though the government claimed Amini died from a previous medical condition while in police custody, her family and critics of the regime believe that she died as a result of being beaten by police.

Her tragic death sparked months of nationwide protests known as the “Woman Life Freedom” movement. At least 537 people were killed by the regime in a brutal crackdown on the demonstrations and at least 22,000 were arrested, Iran Human Rights reported in April.

Tens of thousands of protesters were arrested during the monthslong demonstrations, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) later confirmed.

Despite the intelligence and security pressure against his family, Amjad Amini stated in a public post on his Instagram that the family would hold a commemoration ceremony on the anniversary day. However, he invited people to abstain from violence.

“While we honor the pains and concerns of dear fellow citizens, we would invite everyone to abstain from violence and to react against it,” the statement said.

After the news of Amjad Amini’s arrest circulated on social media Saturday, Tasnim News Agency, a state-linked news outlet, denied the arrest and said he had been “accompanied” on his way to his daughter’s grave.

Human rights observers have accused the regime of putting pressure ahead of the anniversary on families of the victims of the crackdown, along with activists, former political prisoners and anyone with leadership roles in the protests.

Video circulating on social media show the extensive presence of security guards and plain clothes police forces especially in central Tehran and Saqez, the hometown of Amini.

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(LONDON) — The death toll from devastating floods in eastern Libya has surpassed 11,000, according to the Libyan Red Crescent, as rescuers work to understand the full scope of the disaster.

As of Saturday, the bodies of nearly 4,000 people have been recovered and identified, the World Health Organization said. More than 9,000 people are still missing, according to the WHO, which is working with the Libyan Ministry of Health to track the dead and missing.

“This is a disaster of epic proportions,” Dr. Ahmed Zouiten, a WHO representative in Libya, said in a statement.

The Libyan Red Crescent said Friday that at least 11,300 people have died and another 10,100 were reported missing. A Red Crescent official told ABC News it was difficult to give an accurate tally of deaths.

“Bodies are washing up on the shore every minute, on beaches as far as 150 km away,” Ahmed Al-Hadl, the head of aid in the port city of Derna for the Red Crescent, said.

Eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, meanwhile said Friday the number of recorded deaths stood at 3,166.

Mediterranean storm Daniel is behind the widespread flooding in the North African nation, as it washed away entire neighborhoods over the weekend and swept bodies out to sea.

Derna was the worst affected following the collapse of two dams, which wiped out a quarter of the area. Libya’s chief prosecutor announced late Friday he has ordered an investigation into the collapse of the dams — and whether better maintenance could have avoided the disaster.

Derna has been declared a disaster zone, with electricity and communication having been cut off, according to local officials. The head of Libya’s eastern parliament-backed government Osama Hamad told reporters Friday evening that authorities would take precautionary measures that might include sealing off the city of Derna for fear of the spread of diseases.

An assessment team visiting Derna on Thursday said people were returning to what was left of their homes in desperation.

“What I saw there is … the situation is devastating … a lot of destruction and ruins, around 25% of the city was basically destroyed as a result of the flooding,” Talal Burnaz, the acting country director in Libya for the International Medical Corps, told ABC News.

“Whenever you see a search and rescue team you will see families standing there with tears in their eyes asking for support and hoping that they will basically find one of their family members alive,” Burnaz said.

Burnaz said they were still pulling people out of the rubble Thursday. He saw one rescue and heard of four more when he visited the last remaining government-run hospital in Derna. The survivors had been trapped under rubble since the early hours of Monday morning.

Some help is getting through the one road that leads to the devastated areas. Burnaz saw international search and rescue teams — from Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Spain — and he drove past convoys of help coming from all over Libya.

“There were many local authorities there — army, police, scouts, Libyan Red Cross — trying to retrieve either bodies or trying to find survivors under the rubble,” Burnaz said.

The WHO said Saturday that 29 metric tons of health supplies arrived in Benghazi, Libya, from the WHO Global Logistics Hub in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The supplies include medicines, trauma and emergency surgery supplies, and medical equipment, as well as body bags.

Doctors Without Borders dispatched an emergency team from Misrata to Derna that arrived Thursday to assess the needs in the aftermath of storm Daniel, despite challenging conditions as the city was split in two between east and west by the flooding.

The group’s medical coordinator for Libya said the situation is chaotic with volunteers coming from everywhere in Libya to help, leaving an enormous need for coordination.

“There are no dead bodies in the street anymore, no wounded that we can see in the hospital,” Manoelle Carton, Doctors Without Borders’ medical coordinator for Libya, said Friday. “It’s more the day-to-day health needs that are coming up again — chronic diseases. We can clearly identify a huge need in mental health support. Everybody is asking for it, from people in the streets, to the medical doctors that assisted people, from the people who saw the events, to the people who lost their entire families.”

Carton said the emergency team, comprising a logistician and three medical staff, began assessing primary health centers in the city on Friday.

“We visited three health centers in the west — one is not active because almost all of the medical staff died. The two other health centers are active with volunteer doctors from Tripoli, but they are asking for support — mainly for mental health to support people coming to the center,” Carton said.

Carton said the situation of internally displaced people is still unclear, saying the group identified a space in the west of Tripoli with about 3,000 displaced people, but there are more sheltering in the homes of friends and colleagues.

In Derna, those who have lost their homes are being housed in municipal buildings like schools and universities, according to Burnaz.

“If you see the amount of destruction and the area that’s been destroyed — it’s big. You can see cars in the third and fourth floors of the building stuck there … it was massive, like something never seen before,” Burnaz said.

A number of countries have vowed to send aid to Libya, but getting the supplies into the affected areas has proven difficult with many roads blocked and bridges destroyed. Rescue efforts have also been hampered by the current political situation in Libya, with the oil-rich country split between two warring governments — one in the east and the other in the west.

Libya’s National Center of Meteorology reported that more than 16 inches of rain fell in the northeastern city of Bayda within a 24-hour period to Sunday, according to the flood tracking website Floodlist.

The head of the United Nation’s World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas, said Thursday that most of Libya’s flooding casualties could have been avoided if the divided country had a functioning meteorological service.

In a statement, Taalas said that Libya’s National Meteorological Center did issue early warnings for heavy precipitation and floods, but they didn’t address the “risk posed by the aging dams.”

ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

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(DERNA, Libya) — Libya’s chief prosecutor announced Friday he has ordered an investigation into the collapse of two overwhelmed dams during the catastrophic floods — and whether better maintenance could have avoided the disaster.

After Mediterranean storm Daniel brought heavy rains, and widespread flooding, to eastern Libya, two dams near the port city of Derna collapsed earlier this week, wiping out a quarter of the area. The city has been declared a disaster zone.

Decades-old studies showed that the two dams, built in the 1970s primarily to protect the city from floods, suffered cracks and subsidence that may lead to their collapse, according to Libya Attorney General Al-Siddiq Al-Sour.

Al-Sour said around $8 million had been allocated for maintenance that was halted months after it began when the Arab Spring uprising broke out in the country in the early 2010s. Prosecutors are investigating the spending of dam maintenance funds, he told reporters Friday. The investigation would include local authorities as well as previous governments, he said.

“I reassure citizens that whoever made mistakes or negligence, prosecutors will certainly take firm measures, file a criminal case against him and send him to trial,” he said.

A team of 26 prosecutors will also head to Derna to keep a record of victims and identify causes of deaths, he said. His office did not have an accurate tally of deaths as investigations remain underway.

According to the Libyan Red Crescent, at least 11,300 people have died and another 10,100 were reported missing as of Friday in the wake of the destructive floods.

The death toll in Derna could reach upwards of 20,000 people, based on the extent of the damage, Derna Mayor Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi said Thursday.

Libya’s National Center of Meteorology reported that more than 16 inches of rain fell in the northeastern city of Bayda within a 24-hour period to Sunday, according to the flood tracking website Floodlist.

The head of the United Nation’s World Meteorological Organization said Thursday that most of Libya’s flooding casualties could have been avoided if the divided country had a functioning meteorological service.

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(LONDON) — Members of the Wagner Group, a private military company with ties to the Russian government, are now subject to prosecution by British authorities after the United Kingdom declared the group a terrorist organization on Friday.

The Wagner Group was added to the list of proscribed organizations in the U.K., alongside 78 other organizations, more than a week after the order was presented in Parliament, the U.K. Home Office said in a statement.

“This order comes into force with immediate effect and will make belonging to the Wagner Group or actively supporting the group in the UK a criminal offence, with a potential jail sentence of 14 years which can be handed down alongside or in place of a fine,” the Home Office said in a statement.

The Wagner Group, whose name is reportedly a reference to the composer Richard Wagner, beloved by Adolf Hitler, has been involved in several major conflicts including in Ukraine, Mali and Sudan.

The group’s founders, Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, were killed along with eight others in a plane crash in Russia’s Tver region in August, just months after launching a short-lived insurrection against Russian military leadership. The cause of the crash is still under investigation, Russian authorities said.

Prigozhin, a former restauranteur who had close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Utkin, a former Russiian officer, launched Wagner during the 2014 Ukrainian-Russian conflict, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

In 2018, U.S. prosecutors charged Prigozhin for his suspected role in funding the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which the U.S. described as a Russian “troll farm” that sought to use digital campaigns to increase political and social tensions in the U.S.

Wagner had roughly 50,000 members fighting in Ukraine back in January, according to White House spokesman John Kirby.

In June, Prigozhin became vocally frustrated with the Kremlin over the war in Ukraine, and the losses that his troops were facing. He and his troops marched towards Moscow as part of a reported insurrection against Russian military leaders before turning back.

Before his death, Prigozhin allegedly struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin where he didn’t face prosecution and was relocated to Belarus, according to the Kremlin.

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