On February 23rd, Mehr News Agency reported that the Deputy Chief of the IRGC, Hossein Nejat in a speech in Bushehr (south of Iran) claimed that the Iranian-American journalist of The Washington Post, Jason Rezaian who had formed an espionage network was identified and arrested by the IRGC.
As Hossein Nejat stated, the former US Secretary of State, John Kerry with his Intelligence forces urged the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif to release Jason Rezaian. Consequently, the US government in return paid 1 billion and 400 million dollars ransom to Iran for the release of Jason Rezaian.
The Deputy Chief of the IRGC stipulated that Iran has always failed to lift the sanctions by imploring.
Earlier than that, the US republicans slammed the US government regarding the way they released the four Iranian-American prisoners named Jason Rezaian, Amir Mirza Hekmati, Saeed Abedini, and Nosratollah Khosravi; stating that Obama’s government has paid ransom to the Iranian regime.
At that time, Donald Trump was actively present in his campaign and he was one of the main critics of the government policy adopted by Barack Obama towards the release of dual citizens. He had said that if he becomes the president, the U.S. will not pay ransom to Iran anymore,.
Jason Rezaian and his family have currently filed a complaint against Iranian regime with the Federal Judiciary of the United States. This appeal which has also been filed in Washington Court raises the issue that Iran has used Jason Rezaian in order to gain the upper hand in the exchange of prisoners as well as extorting concessions from the US government in the nuclear negotiations to lift sanctions.
Source: / ncr-iran /