Exclusive | Debate on the Exchange of Dual-National Prisoners; Beneficial for the U.S. or the Islamic Republic?

Voice of America on Monday evening, September 18, held a debate on its "News Hour" program with three political experts discussing the exchange of dual-national prisoners in return for the release of $6 billion of Iran's funds, examining various aspects from both supporting and opposing viewpoints. Kambez Ghafouri, a journalist, and Omid Mohammadian, a political analyst, were primarily against this model of exchange and the release of hostages, while Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, defended the Biden administration's stance on this issue. Kambez Ghafouri expressed happiness over the release of five prisoners from the Islamic Republic's prisons, stating, "This happiness is accompanied by concern because once again, the hostage-taking policy has brought the Islamic Republic to its demands, and there is fear that more American lives will be endangered to further this policy." He noted that conducting this exchange coinciding with the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death sends a wrong message to the Islamic Republic, adding, "Although the U.S. can monitor the spending of the released Iranian funds precisely and completely, the leaders of the Islamic government have also received the wrong signal that they can continue their hostage-taking policy due to the weak performance of Western governments." Ali Vaez, however, defended the Biden administration's actions and policies regarding the release of American prisoners, stating, "Critics of this policy have no better suggestions for how to free hostages, whether from the Islamic Republic or from prisons in other countries like Russia and Venezuela; if they had better proposals, the Islamic Republic would not have been able to exploit its hostage-taking policy for the past 44 years." He added, "The primary priority of the U.S. government is to save its own citizens, although in the past year, the Biden administration has supported the protesting people of Iran as much as it could." Vaez described the coincidence of the prisoner exchange and the release of Iranian funds with the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death and Ibrahim Raisi's presence at the UN General Assembly as "coincidental," clarifying that this timing is due to banks' limitations on transferring $6 billion of funds, and that the U.S. oversight mechanism over the spending of these funds is very precise and even more calculated than the Oil-for-Food program in Iraq. Omid Mohammadian, on the other hand, considered the timing of these exchanges with the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death and Ibrahim Raisi's presence in New York to be detrimental to the Islamic Republic, stating, "The released prisoners who have now stepped into the free world can present a dark image of the Islamic Republic as a whole, Iran's prisons, and the conditions of imprisoned detainees to the world and major media outlets while the Islamic Republic officials are in New York." He criticized the way the U.S. interacts with the Islamic Republic regarding the release of its hostages, noting, "The U.S. has been seeking to free its citizens from Iranian prisons at any cost, but the point is that in this exchange, the Islamic Republic has been severely humiliated despite its internal propaganda and cannot access its own funds without U.S. permission; therefore, the release of $6 billion of Iran's blocked funds from South Korea and their transfer to banks in Qatar does not count as a diplomatic victory for the Islamic Republic." It is noteworthy that the dual-national citizens released from Iran, who arrived in Qatar on Monday afternoon, left Doha for Washington. Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after the release of five dual-national prisoners, issued a statement urging American citizens not to travel to Iran for any reason and to leave the country immediately if they are there. Blinken stated that Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharqi, Morad Tahbaz, and two other American citizens who do not wish to have their identities disclosed have left Iran and are on their way to the United States to reunite with their loved ones. He added that two of their relatives, who are also American and had not been allowed to leave Iran until today, are accompanying them. According to him, "Some of these individuals have spent years in prison as part of the Iranian regime's cruel illegal detention practices, but today they are all returning home to their loved ones." Blinken emphasized that the priority is the freedom of American citizens imprisoned abroad, stating that under President Joe Biden's leadership, more than 30 unjustly detained American citizens have been returned to the U.S. He also thanked the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and the officials of that country for their role in the release of these individuals and for establishing a "humanitarian channel in Qatar to purchase goods such as food, medicine, medical supplies, and agricultural products from Iran." Blinken also expressed gratitude to Switzerland, South Korea, Oman, and the United Kingdom.