And we had standards of what he would accept and not. And that process intensified. We had very intense negotiations in doha. And were grateful to qatar and oman for helping in this. And when the arrangement came together on terms that we could accept, the president made the difficult but right decision to move ahead. One of the we had an activist on earlier in the show who expressed concern that this only incentivizes Hostage Taking by governments such as irans. There is no question that President Biden with a statement just three days ago on the anniversary of the death of mahsa amini about the support for the rafrn why not people. And at the height of the protests last year, about one this three were using anticensorship stools stools United States. And we see an opportunity to bring home five american citizens and as you said, in the case of simak namazi, he was in prison for five years. Sharghi the same amount of time. And iran really gain no benefit. There are no funds. Iranian h
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The family of an Iranian-American jailed in Tehran and his father, who is unable to leave Iran, urged U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday to make their freedom a precondition of any deals between the United States and Iran.
FILE PHOTO: Babak Namazi, the brother and son of two prisoners in Iran, who hold both U.S. American and Iranian citizenship and who have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms in Iran, addresses the media in Vienna, Austria, April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
A top White House official said on Sunday the United States had begun to communicate with Iran over its detention of Americans. The move coincides with the Biden administration seeks talks with Iran on reviving a 2015 deal with global powers that aims to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.