6 billion in iranian funds blocked by u. S. Sanctions. The u. S. Is also releasing fiver iranian nationals being detained in the u. S. joining us now is Gabe Gutierrez at the white house. Gabe, good morning. So this is just happening right now, but these Fiver Americans have been held in a hotel in iran for a month now. What do we know about what the deal is and how it all came about . Reporter this deal had been going on for quite some time, underway for several years. Nbc news first reported on these negotiations earlier this year in february. This is the moment that their families have been waiting for, and were just actually getting a Written Statement now from President Biden just within the last few moments, he says, today five Innocent Americans who were imprisoned in iran are finally coming home. They will soon be reuniting with their loved one after enduring years of suffering. We are grateful to partners at home and abroad for their tireless efforts to help us achieve this outcome including the governments of qatar, oman, switzerland, and south korea. This is something weve been reporting on for the last several days. We are seeing for the first time those new images of those americans getting off in qatar. The Biden Administration had been facing some criticism from its critics saying this money essentially amounted to ransom payment. The Biden Administration pushing back on that saying this is iranian money merely being unfrozen for humanitarian purposes and that money will be strictly monitored, jose. At this point, just this morning, a few moments ago were seeing that video. Family members of those americans Breathing A Sigh of relief this morning, jose. And gabe, just not all of them but most of them will be going on to a flight to the United States shortly today. Thats exactly right. There were five iranians that were part of this deal as well, and were also learning more information from them from Senior Administration officials saying that those five iranians were charged with nonviolent crimes. Now, three of the five actually have some legal status in the u. S. The other two will head to qatar. Two of those iranians had been in prison and three of them had not yet been convicted. This is a deal that had been in the works for quite some time. The Biden Administration also announcing new sanctions today, so in terms of relations between the two countries, it is still very tense, and according to Senior Administration officials, they have no confidence at this point that iran will stop detaining americans. Those new sanctions today against Irans Ministry of intelligence and the former president for irans role in the disappearance of a former fbi agent, bob levenson who disappeared off the coast of iran in 2007. He died several years ago believed to be in iranian custody. The u. S. Still wants a more complete accounting of what bob levenson went through and exactly how he died, and the u. S. Administration officials saying these sanctions are part of what they believe that the iranian government continues to wrongfully detain americans is actually urging americans not to travel to iran. Jose. Gabe, stay with us. I want to bring in ali arouzi, hes live in tehran today. Its good to see you. So what more do we know about the five iranians the u. S. Is releasing, and gabe was talking to a little bit more about them. Do we know more about them . Hey, jose, as gabe mentioned, two of them have decided to remain anonymous. Were not sure why. They may have Family Members here and they dont want that sort of exposure. The three we know of is 51yearold Siamak Namazi, who spent more time in an iranian prison than any citizen in history. Shortly after he was arrested his father flew to iran and tried to secure his release. He was subsequently arrested. Hes a man in his 80s. He was only released in 2022 on Health Grounds so if anybody knows what Siamak Namazi is feeling, his father certainly does. The other two is 59yearold Business Marn and a 67yearold environmentalist. He also holds bridge citizenship, so we know these three guys who they are, we know that we dont know which one of their Family Members flew over on that qatar jet with them, but some of their Family Members also flew with them to pick them up to go back to qatar, and its going to be a moment of extreme joy and relief for these peoples. I mean, we dont need to tell our viewers, its a notorious prison. Its not an easy place to spend time let alone eightplus years. This is really going to be a moment of massive relief for these guys. And they probably, you know, didnt know that they were going to be released up until a couple of weeks ago and even being on that tarmac, jose, they probably werent sure that this deal was all going to come through until that qatar plane had left iranian air space because, you know, relations between iran and the u. S. Are so acrimonious, you never know if a deal is done until it really is done. But now they are out of there. As gabe mentioned, theyre probably going to have some quick medical checks in qatar, and from there to the United States to be reunited with the rest of their family, probably have some very in depth medical checks and psychological evaluations because spending that much time in such a harsh prison is going to take an extremely heavy toll on you both physically and mentally. Again, a moment of great relief for these five iranian americans that are being released after so long. Ali, i just want were getting in a statement by Siamak Namazi, one of the americans release ed today. Were just getting it now, his statement. He was held since 2015. Among the things he says, he says i would not be free today if it wasnt for all of you who didnt allow the world to forget me. As a hostage 2,898 days of what should have been the best days of my life were stolen from me and supplanted with torment. He goes on, its a very lengthy statement, but he says more importantly my heartfelt gratitude goes to President Biden and his administration, which had to make some incredibly difficult decisions to rescue. Us thank you, President Biden, for ultimately putting the lives of american citizens above politics. Over the past 44 years, he goes on to say, the Iranian Regime has mastered the nasty game of caging Innocent Americans and other foreign nationals and commercializing their freedom. By now, the prison is virtually a dystopian United Nations of hostages. We must urgently channel the grievous pain of the victims of this wickedness into the kind of measures that would upend the cost Benefit Calculations of tehrans foul business. For if we keep this path to profit free of risk and toll, this regime will keep treading on it. Again and again and again. Extraordinarily strong words by this gentleman who suffered, you know, just unbelievable torture. Thats the word that we have to use, and i also i want to bring in rick stengel, former under Secretary Of State for Public Diplomacy and affairs and an news political analyst. Rick, i thank you. Been looking forward to having our conversation as i learn something from you every day, i get a chance to speak with you. Just thinking, rick, your observations, your thoughts at what were seeing today . Well, its a joyous occasion, jose, and this administration, the Biden Administration like the Obama Administration, like traditional administrations, places a huge premium on getting americans who are unfairly and illegally held back home, and so what is the price for getting an american back home . There is no price for it. The Biden Administration is willing to go to the ends of the earth to get these men home, and so know theres criticism in anticipating it, but my understanding from reading these reports is that this was south korean money that was being paid to the iranians for iranian oil that was held in escrow because of the u. S. Boycott of iranian oil, so this wasnt american money at all, but i would say there is no price thats too high to pay for the release of americans. Again, its something that traditionally american administrations do to get americans back home. Its a great occasion. I think question never lose sight of the fact that these are five individuals that are now out of that prison hell that they were subjected to. Of course the president even mentions today the fact there are some americans who we still have no information about, and im thinking of course about bob levenson. Rick, i want to pick your brain on the cost benefit of things, taking, of course, the priority that these are five souls that are out of that hell. Nbcs lester holt asked the iranian president if he believed he had the right to use those billions of dollars any way he saw fit heres what he had to say then. Translator this money belongs to the Islamic Republic of iran, and naturally we will decide, the Islamic Republic of iran will decide to spend it wherever we need it. So if i hear you clearly, that it will be used for more than humanitarian purposes in your view . Translator humanitarian means whatever the ranian people needs, so this money will be budgeted for those needs. We should note that lester spotlight to the picture using an iranian government translator. Rick, one thing is theres a lot of theater in everything and elsewhere, but this is the leader of iran not speaking to his people in iran but knowing hes speaking to lester holt and the United States media saying this is not where the money is going to be used. Were going to use it as we see fit. Well, jose, he is, of course, also speaking to his domestic audience, and hes aware of the fact that people in iran are monitoring what hes saying. Nobody in his position could Say Something like, yes, im abiding by all of those strict rules that the americans have imposed on this money. By the way, it almost doesnt make a difference in the sense that they have to use this money for humanitarian reasons. That frees up other money to be used for other purposes. But again, it was south korean payments for iranian oil. Its not something that the u. S. Controls, and look, you know, our longterm policy from the Obama Administration to the Biden Administration is to try to bring iran into the kind of family of nations and not have it be an outliar and a outlier and a pariah state like it is today. This idea of getting the iran deal back on the table i think is a good thing and getting iran to cooperate with the west and those other nations that negotiated the iran deal seem to be a good thing too. Nobodys talking about that, but that is indeed the sub text of what happened today. Ali, how is this playing out in iran . Reporter i got it tell you, jose, its not playing out hugely amongst the iranian public here. It hasnt made much headlines on social media. There are a lot of problems in this country that are keeping people preoccupied, whats left over from those protests last year is still very raw here. The economy is in a terrible condition here. Theres hyper inflation i think iranians pretty much preoccupied with their everyday problems. Its interesting because before when you would see Hostage Releases in this country, it would make a lot of noise amongst ordinary people. This time it really hasnt, theres so much going on in the country. I thought what was also interesting, jose, when you read out namazis statement, its also important to point out that Siamak Namazi is the longest serving prisoner in history. He said that he spent the the best years of his life here, he spent almost his entire 40s in an iranian prison. That really is an incredibly difficult experience. Its just the relief they must be feeling is just unbelievable, and to go back to what rick and everybody was saying, yes, theres going to be a lot of criticism and fair criticism about giving up all of this money to get these guys released, but at the end of the day as the Biden Administration said, if they didnt pay that, these five u. S. Citizens would probably be languishing in an iranian prison for a very, very long time to come. Ali, going back to namazis statement today, theres one paragraph that struck me, that said while in prison i experienced the worst of humanity every day. Outside of those walls there were countless people who reminded me of the best of humanity. They learned of our familys suffering and in Innumerable Smul small and big ways, from my classmate, there are literally scores of people that i need to reach to thank, and ali, its interesting to me because this is something that is not youre saying disseminated in iran at all. Youd think that it would be from the iranians perspective a victory to get five iranians back, to get 6 billion, and to release these people . Reporter certainly on a governmental level theyre making some news about it, you know, the iranians, the iranian government have said theyve gotten their money back. Theyve gotten Fiver Iranians that were incarcerated in america back, but theyre not making a huge song and dance about it. And what was interesting is that youre not really hearing anything about it on the ground from normal iranians. It didnt really resonate amongst ordinary iranians because theyre drowning in so many of their own problems right now that this just didnt make many headlines. Lets not forget, it was the anniversary of masa ha mee knees death a few days ago. There was a lot of worry about protests. Thats what people are really preoccupied with these days. The government certainly is giving themselves a pat on the back that they got all of these funds released back into the country, as you mentioned president rye see even turned around the conditions of this money, saying thats not the case, we have access to whatever we want it for. Thats partly for domestic consumption and partly for the u. S. To say were not taking any orders from them. Theres still a lot of tension between the u. S. And iran. That animosity hasnt gone away, but the feeling is that hopefully it will lower the tension just slightly for these sides to be able to talk about important issues like the nuclear deal, human rights, et cetera, in this country, but i think were still quite a long way away from that, jose. Yeah, and im thinking, rick, you touched on it, i want to kind of bring you back to that conversation you just started a minute ago. Do you think this is a step, a precedent i mean, it could be just standard operating procedure, i guess diplomatically speaking. Does this in any way, you think, open up for anything further between the United States and iran . And im thinking just recently of saudi arabias responsibility and playing a factor now in dealing with iran. Do you think, rick, that this is just the beginning of something or just in ask of itself a one timer . Jose, i hope it is. I just want to pick up on one thing that ali was saying for our viewers. Remember, iran is not an open media state. Iranian Citizens Cannot access msnbc. They cant watch the bbc. So the fact that the government decides that people are not going to know about something theyre not going to know about it, its an authoritarian repressive state. I just wanted to make that point. Look, these negotiations have been going on for a long time as have the negotiations for trying to reanimate the iran deal. Again, the reports was that brett mcgurk who is on the white house staff and leads kind of middle east section, he was negotiating the iran deal. He was negotiating this deal. I think that the strings are interwoven between the two. Again, we would like to have iran get back on the table. I mean, even the reports today about irans possibility for nuclear weapons, i mean, they are further along today than they were at the time that we signed the iran deal than even when the Top Administration ended the iran deal. I think it would be good for the u. S. It would be good for iran. It would be good for humanity to have that deal put back on the table again, and im sure, again, thats something in the back of peoples minds. And today, gabe, the u. N. General Assembly Begins in new york. Both President Biden and raisi are expected to be there. Do you think the white house has any plans or possibility of some kind of conversation there . Senior Administration Officials say there are no plans for u. S. Officials and iranian officials to talk. Again, this Prisoner Swap was brokered by these other countries. So as, you know, ali was mentioning, this tension is expected to continue. Now, i want to mention a Written Statement we just got within the past few moments from Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken who you mentioned is at the u. N. General assembly. He echoed what we also heard from President Biden within the past few minutes call