An Iranian scientist yesterday returned home after his release from a US jail in what state media said was a prisoner exchange Tehran hopes can be repeated between the countries.
Majid Taheri — an Iranian-American who had been working at a clinic in Tampa, Florida — had been detained in the US for 16 months.
He was freed on Thursday last week as Iran released US Navy veteran Michael White, who had been detained in the Islamic republic since his arrest in July 2018.
Photo: AFP
Upon his arrival at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, Taheri was greeted by Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari.
State media published pictures of the pair speaking to journalists.
“I hope to see the release of [other Iranians imprisoned abroad] in the near future,” Ansari was quoted as saying by Iranian Students’ News Agency, adding that his ministry would do its best to achieve this.
Ansari said the scientist was freed after months of efforts by the ministry in coordination with Switzerland, whose embassy in Tehran handles US interests.
Taheri for his part thanked Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“I thank the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and dear officials, including Mr Zarif, who worked hard, and other officials who took months to help release me as an Iranian physician accused of circumventing US sanctions on medicine,” he was quoted as saying.
Taheri was the second scientist to have returned to Iran from the US in the past week, after Cyrus Asgari flew home on Wednesday last week.
A US federal judge issued an order to free Taheri on time served.
Taheri had been accused of violating US sanctions by sending a technical item to Iran and in December last year pleaded guilty to charges that he violated financial reporting requirements by depositing US$277,344 at a bank, repeatedly showing up with loose cash, according to court documents.
Yesterday, he rejected accusations against him as “unfair and false,” Iran’s Fars news agency reported.
“I was helping the University of Tehran to develop a cancer vaccine, especially for women,” he was quoted as saying.
Iran-US tensions have soared in the past few years as US President Donald Trump has pursued a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Tehran.
Since unilaterally withdrawing the US from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, Trump has hit the Islamic republic with sweeping sanctions.
The two sides in January appeared to come to the brink of a direct conflict for the second time in less than a year, when Trump ordered an airstrike that killed one of Iran’s top generals, Qasem Soleimani, in Baghdad.
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