Shamkhani: Republicans Sent Message Not to Release Prisoners Until US Elections

Admiral Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, stated on Thursday, February 11, in Yazd, regarding the prisoner exchange between Iran and the United States: "Republican rivals of the US government sent a message not to release them, but we acted based on our own will." According to Fars News Agency, the representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Supreme National Security Council said that the American Republicans, whom he referred to as "claiming humanitarianism and human rights," had requested that the release of Iranian-American prisoners be delayed until after the US elections. Mr. Shamkhani did not specify how this message was conveyed to Iranian officials. American officials or Republicans have not yet responded to Mr. Shamkhani's statements. On January 16, coinciding with the implementation of the JCPOA, Iran and the US agreed to release several citizens of both countries who were imprisoned in each other's territories. Following the prisoner exchange, it became clear that this agreement was reached after negotiations that had taken place a year and a half prior. According to this agreement, four dual-national Iranian-American prisoners held in Iranian prisons were released, and in return, the US government agreed to release seven Iranian prisoners in its country. Jason Rezaian, a journalist for The Washington Post, Amir Hekmati, a former Marine, Saeed Abedini, a Christian convert, and Nasratollah Khosravi Roudsari were the four Iranian-American citizens released from Iranian prisons. The seven Iranians imprisoned in US prisons who were released during this agreement were primarily detained for circumventing US sanctions against Iran and during the buying or selling or sending of dual-use electronic equipment to Iran. Previously, reports regarding Ali Shamkhani's speech had been published in Fars and Tasnim news agencies in a way that linked the "Republican request" to the delay in the release of American sailors detained in the Persian Gulf, whereas in the reorganization of these reports, that "request" was connected to the release of prisoners in the Iranian-American prisoner exchange. Ali Shamkhani's remarks regarding the Republican request not to release prisoners until the US presidential elections remind some analysts of the hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran in November 1979. Some political analysts believe that the delay in the release of diplomats and staff taken hostage at the US embassy in Tehran contributed to the defeat of Jimmy Carter, the Democratic President of the US, in the second round of the electoral competition, allowing his Republican rival Ronald Reagan to reach the White House through a publicity maneuver regarding the hostage crisis in Tehran. The hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran, referred to by the leaders of the Islamic Republic as the "second revolution" and the "storming of the US spy den," is commemorated in the official calendar of the Islamic Republic of Iran as "National Day of Struggle Against Global Arrogance." On November 4, 1979, a group of students known as "followers of the line of Imam" stormed the US embassy and took 66 staff and diplomats hostage. Ultimately, after the release of some of the embassy staff taken hostage in Tehran, 52 American diplomats and staff were held hostage for 444 days until they were finally released following the outcome of the US presidential election, which resulted in the victory of the Republican candidate over the then Democratic President.