The Americans left behind in Iran

Editorial: The Americans left behind

By Herald Staff20 hours ago

While the champagne corks were popping and the back-slapping going on in Vienna, there were some quarters where there would be no celebration - places like Boise, Idaho, and, say, the newsroom at the Washington Post.

Not part of the Iran nuclear deal was mention of or relief for any of the four Americans being held in that country, which remains a stranger to anything resembling the rule of law. The point was surely not lost on the families of those four men who had hoped the deal would be used as leverage to win their freedom. It wasn't.

In a particularly testy response at his Wednesday news conference President Obama said, "The notion that I'm content [with the status quo], that's nonsense. Nobody is content. Our teams are working diligently to get them out."

He also decried the "logic" of linking the nuclear deal with any effort to free the four Americans.

Well, don't try telling that to Naghmeh Abedini, whose husband, Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American Christian pastor from Boise, was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2013 on charges of attempting to undermine the Iranian government. He had gone to set up an orphanage.

"When I realized the release was not secured, it was heartbreaking for me," Naghmeh Abedini told Boston Herald Radio. "I knew they were talking about Saeed and the other Americans on the sidelines and I had hopes their release would have been secured on the sidelines before walking away with a deal."

Also being held is Jason Rezaian, Tehran bureau chief for the Washington Post, arrested just about a year ago, and charged with espionage and "propaganda against the establishment." His bosses and the State Department have labeled the charges absurd.

Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent and contractor for the CIA, has been held since 2007 and Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine, who went to visit grandparents in Iran, was arrested in 2012 and charged with "working for an enemy country."

Right now they are the ones John Kerry and the State Department have left behind. Iran may get its deal - and its $100 billion in frozen assets - but where is the justice for these four Americans? They are left behind - for now - but they are far from forgotten.