* * *
Now we know that Washington Post correspondent Jason
Rezaian and three other Americans were hostages held by Iran in return for U.S.
concessions, in case there was any doubt.
And on Saturday we learned the ransom price: $100 billion
as part of the completed nuclear deal and a prisoner swap of Iranians who
violated U.S. laws. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps should call this
Operation Clean Sweep.
The timing of Iran’s Saturday release of the Americans is
no accident. This was also implementation day for the nuclear deal, when United
Nations sanctions on Tehran were lifted, which means that more than $100
billion in frozen assets will soon flow to Iran and the regime will get a lift
from new investment and oil sales. The mullahs were taking no chances and held
the hostages until President Obama’s diplomatic checks cleared.
We’re as relieved as anyone to see the four Americans
coming home, though there was no legal basis for their arrests. Mr. Rezaian had
been held since July 2014 and was convicted last year of espionage without
evidence. The other freed Iranian-Americans include former Marine Amir Hekmati,
Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, a dual
citizen whose detention wasn’t previously reported.
The Iranians negotiated a steep price for their freedom.
The White House agreed to pardon or drop charges against
seven Iranian nationals charged with or convicted of crimes in the U.S., mostly
for violating sanctions designed to retard Iran’s military or nuclear programs.
Iran gets back men who were assisting its military
ambitions while we get innocents.
(This is similar to the lopsided prisoner swaps that Mr.
Obama previously made with Cuba for Alan Gross and the Taliban for...deserter
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.)
The U.S. didn’t resolve the case of Robert Levinson, a
former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007. Iran claims it doesn’t know
where he is. Iran also refused to release its newest hostage, oil-industry
executive Siamak Namazi, who was detained in October and accused of espionage
though no charges have been brought. Perhaps he’ll be held for some future
ransom.
The Obama Administration also agreed to drop the names of
14 Iranian nationals from an Interpol watch list. Most notable is the CEO of
Mahan Air, an Iranian carrier sanctioned for transporting members of Iran’s
Revolutionary Guards that is suspected of transferring arms to Bashar Assad’s
regime.
The prisoner swap helps to solve the mystery of the Obama
Administration’s December flip-flop on new sanctions against Tehran’s
ballistic-missile program. (The mullahs have twice tested long-range missiles
in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution since the nuclear accord was
signed in July.)
The White House in December told Congress that it was
preparing sanctions against 12 entities allegedly involved in the
ballistic-missile program, then abruptly dropped the idea the same day. The
Administration never explained the about-face and denied that the delay was
political. But Reuters reported Saturday that the U.S. stood down after
“Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
the move could derail a prisoner deal the two sides had been negotiating in
secret for months.”
(On Sunday, with the Americans home, the U.S. went ahead
with very limited sanctions against 11 entities and individuals for procuring
components for the missile program, but Iran has promised to accelerate its
missile deployments in any case.)
All of this shows that the nuclear accord is already
playing out as critics predicted.
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