Writer Robin Wright shed light on the real deal behind the prisoner exchange between the United States and Iran, and reported in a report published by The New Yorker magazine that this deal saved American researcher Xu Wang from a ten-year prison sentence in Iran for espionage.
She notes that the Iranian authorities arrested this researcher in 2016 while conducting research related to a doctoral thesis at the National Archives of Tehran during the Qajar dynasty in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
She adds that the exchange ended the issue of the controversial Iranian scientist Masoud Soleimani, who was arrested after he arrived in US soil in October 2018 while on his way to visit a researcher at the medical group Mayo Clinic, where he was charged with attempting to export biological material from the United States To Iran without a permit, which was considered a breach of US sanctions on Tehran.
Hostage reservation
The writer mentioned that a high-ranking Trump administration official made a press statement expressing his hope that Wang's release would be "a sign that the Iranians are realizing that their pursuit of hostage diplomacy should end."
The magazine notes that six other Americans are still being held in Iran, including Robert Levinson, who disappeared during his trip to an Iranian city 12 years ago, and that the Trump administration in return has arrested at least 13 Iranians in the United States in the past two years.
The success of the prisoner exchange is credited to Trump, as well as to the efforts of the Swiss government, which has represented American interests with Iran since Washington cut ties with Tehran in 1980.
In Zurich, the US special envoy to Iran, Brian Hook, was taken into custody, Wang, as the State Department published a tweet that included a photo of them on the tarmac.
behind the scenes
In this regard, Jason Poblete, lawyer for the Wang family, who was frustrated by the failure of the administration to reach a solution, said he had reached out to former US Congressman Jim Slattery.
The author adds that Slateri has been engaged for years with the Iranians in a dialogue on divine religions, and that he traveled to Iran and met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi, who graduated from the University of Kansas.
These parties have made unremitting efforts behind the scenes in cooperation with the United States, Iranian parties and family members of the prisoners.
In the same vein, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, said that he "spent nearly twenty months negotiating with Iran behind the scenes."
One of the most difficult challenges facing the United States, according to the author, is that successful release of Americans imprisoned outside the country. Such operations usually involve a large number of parties involved and common interests, and often take place outside of American territory, as happened in the recent deal with Iran.
turning point
The author notes that during last April, a major turning point occurred in the file of the prisoners, when Zarif publicly expressed his interest in the prisoner exchange.
The author emphasized that Suleimani's legal status was one of the most difficult aspects of the prisoner exchange deal.
The writer stated that the Iranian project director in the International Crisis Group, Ali Fayez, believes that the exchange was a cause for optimism, although it represents only one step in the process of dealing in light of forty years of tensions between the two countries. In this regard, Fayez said, "The exchange represents a very positive step, because it is the first time that Iran and the United States have agreed on something under the Trump administration."