While prisoner swaps are not unheard of, it is ludicrous for the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, a man of law, to suggest that Iranian-American individuals who traveled to Iran to visit their family members or as journalists, many of whom have been accused of spying, should be compared to and swapped with the spies of the Islamic Republic who were actually arrested for engaging in unlawful activities. Unfortunately, Tehran has engaged in this kind of hostage taking before, and has used this tactic against the U.S. and Europe to negotiate the freedom of its spies. For example, one of the assassins of Shapour Bakhtiar, Iran’s last Prime Minister, was exchanged for a French journalist who was arrested inside Iran for reporting the events after the 2009 presidential election. The assassin, Vakili Rad, returned to Iran as a “hero.”
Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, recently visited the United States. During his visit, he had an interview with NPR in which he made some ridiculous comments. When asked if there was any possibility that Jason Rezaian (an Iranian-American journalist who has been in prison inside Iran for over a year on “sedition” charges) or other Americans in Iranian prisons could be freed, he responded by saying “of course. But there are also Iranians in American prisons.” By saying this, he is apparently suggesting that Iran and America could engage in a “prisoner swap.”
While prisoner swaps are not unheard of, it is ludicrous for the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, a man of law, to suggest that Iranian-American individuals who traveled to Iran to visit their family members or as journalists, many of whom have been accused of spying, should be compared to and swapped with the spies of the Islamic Republic who were actually arrested for engaging in unlawful activities. Unfortunately, Tehran has engaged in this kind of hostage taking before, and has used this tactic against the U.S. and Europe to negotiate the freedom of its spies. For example, one of the assassins of Shapour Bakhtiar, Iran’s last Prime Minister, was exchanged for a French journalist who was arrested inside Iran for reporting the events after the 2009 presidential election. The assassin, Vakili Rad, returned to Iran as a “hero.”
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