Despite campaign promises to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal, on Monday the Trump administration certified compliance to Congress of the agreement.
On Tuesday, the State Department announced new sanctions on Iran including the designation of “18 entities and individuals supporting Iran’s ballistic missile program and for supporting Iran’s military procurement or Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as an Iran-based transnational criminal organization and associated persons.”
This week, Chinese-American Princeton graduate student Xiyue Wang, who was conducting research on the Qajar dynasty that ruled Iran in the 1800s and had been arrested a year ago, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran, on trumped up charges of spying. The charges, a State Department official said on Monday, are “baseless.”
Yet Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday, said that the Iranian judiciary is “independent.”
The Trump administration has made a flagship program of trying to garner the release of Americans held on bogus charges in North Korea, Iran and China, who take Americans as pawns for negotiating leverage.
{mosads}Otto Warmbier died shortly after being released from North Korean custody, just as Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo died while in Chinese custody, despite the administration’s efforts on their behalf.
Iran also has several U.S. citizens in custody on questionable charges.
Dual nationals Siamak Namazi and his 81-year-old father, Baquer Namazi, are each serving 10-year sentences; Robin Shahini was released on bail last year after a hunger strike while serving an 18-year prison sentence; and Karan Vafadari was detained along with his Iranian wife last year. Nizar Zakka, a U.S. permanent resident from Lebanon, was sentenced to 10 years, which he is serving in Evin Prison, while his health is deteriorating.
Hearings are planned in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Americans held in Iran and several bills have been introduced in the Senate and the House to secure the release of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.
In February, UNICEF pleaded for Namazi’s release: “One year ago today, our respected former UNICEF colleague, Baquer Namazi, was imprisoned in Iran. Our concerns for his health and wellbeing have grown deeper with each passing day. He should be returned to the care of his family and friends.”
The State Department issued a statement calling for the immediate release of “all U.S. citizens unjustly detained in Iran,” and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley met with Babak Namazi, whose brother and father have been imprisoned in Iran, tweeted, “Detaining political prisoners is one of the worst human rights abuses a country can do. Iran is doing just that with two of our citizens.”
Back in 2015, when the Iran nuclear deal was consummated by President Obama, three Americans were on flights out of Iran: a pastor, a former Marine and a reporter, in a mutual prisoner release. U.S. citizens were released and new sanctions imposed for Iran’s ballistic missile tests, not covered by the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Under the terms of the nuclear agreement, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran’s compliance with the deal; there was a substantial debate within the administration about whether or not to proceed on certification and the administration promises other actions for Iran’s “misbehavior,” such as its ballistic missile development and support of terrorist organizations, senior administration officials said in a background briefing on Monday.
When Zarif was asked about the U.S. dual nationals and legal permanent residents held in Iran, he said that the world has to stop arresting Iranians, in Australia, in Germany and in Spain, on violations of sanctions.
In response to Council President Richard Haass’s question whether or not Iran is prepared to release Americans held on questionable charges, Zarif said, “There are Iranians being arrested in the United States on bogus charges.”
To some snickers from the well-heeled audience, Zarif said, “Iran has an independent judiciary. We in the government don’t have any control over decisions of the judiciary.”
Jeffrey Laurenti, former senior fellow at The Century Foundation, asked Zarif “What kind of independent judiciary is it, that has secret trials?”
Zarif evaded:
“I can give you a case right now in New York, where the lawyer for the defendant does not have access to the charges against him because they say charges are classified … if you call these dark forces in Iran, you should call them dark forces in the United States.”
“A court in New York gave $11 billion to victims of 9/11 accusing Iran of being the culprit, when every evidence is that Saudi Arabia and your allies were the real culprit.”
Zarif then defended the sentence against Princeton student Xiyue Wang: “The judiciary has evidence to prove that this gentleman was involved in espionage …we cannot simply say this was an arbitrary decision.”
“I am not saying it’s tit for tat, but I’m saying that we need to address this humanitarian problem from a humanitarian perspective,” Zarif said.
But “tit for tat” is evidently what it is.
Representatives of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, China, Russia, France, Britain and the United States, plus Germany are set to meet in Vienna on July 21 to discuss the status of the nuclear agreement, and a senior administration official on Monday said that the meeting will be an appropriate time to put pressure on Iran.
Time is short for the Americans held on wrongful charges in Iran and President Trump administration must find a way to secure the release of prisoners being held as pawns.
Pamela Falk, former staff director of a House of Representatives Subcommittee, is CBS News TV & Radio foreign affairs analyst and U.N. resident correspondent and holds a J.D. from Columbia School of Law. Follow her on Twitter at @PamelaFalk.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.