Triumph or travesty? Debate rages over impact of warming US-Iran ties

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Diplomatic triumph or travesty, America’s relationship with one of its most intractable foes took two giant leaps forward this weekend when Iran released four Americans in a prisoner swap after locking in last summer’s nuclear deal and receiving some $100 billion in sanctions relief.

The announcements culminated a stunning few days of activity for the Obama administration and particularly Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the diplomatic outreach to Tehran at President Barack Obama’s direction through years of slow-grinding negotiations.

Speaking from the White House, Obama on Sunday hailed the “historic progress through diplomacy,” long the centerpiece of his foreign policy vision, instead of another war in the Middle East.

Three of the American detainees — Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and pastor Saeed Abedini — arrived in Germany en route to a U.S. military hospital. They will return home after medical evaluations.

The fourth, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, opted to remain in Iran, officials said.

The Islamic Republic released the prisoners in exchange for pardons or charges dropped against seven Iranians — six of whom hold dual U.S. citizenship — serving time for or accused of sanctions violations in the United States. A fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, who had been detained in Iran for roughly 40 days, was released separately.

For all the celebrations, the timing of the deal, finalized hours after Saturday night’s U.N. confirmation that Iran made good on pledges to significantly back away from atomic bomb-making capacity, suggested that the Americans possibly were used as pawns by the Iranian government to win long-sought economic relief, as critics allege.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s declaration unlocked some $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets overseas, and potentially even greater economic benefits through suspended oil, trade and financial sanctions by the U.S. and European Union.

Critics of Obama’s Iran policy at home and abroad pounced on the details of the prisoner exchange and the new economic opportunities being afforded Tehran while it still supports Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

“This deal is a problematic deal, and it reflects a pattern we have seen in the Obama administration over and over again of negotiating with terrorists, and making deals and trades that endanger U.S. safety and security,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a GOP presidential candidate, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Nevertheless, the back-to-back breakthroughs reflected painstaking diplomacy by Kerry and administration officials.